Lagoongirl
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2005
- Messages
- 37
Characters:
Me 42 year old Disney lover and cheer mom, 5th visit to WDW
DD 17 year old cheerleader, 3rd visit to WDW
19 other 16-18 year old cheerleaders
15 other moms
2 dads
3 siblings (not mine, but other group members)
1 son in law (not mine, but other group members)
2 coaches
1 advisor
Sheesh!!!
My DD is a cheerleader at her high school and we went down to WDW for the UCA National Cheerleading Competition February 11-12. This report is a solo/group combo as there was a lot of time when I visited the attractions solo and other times when I patiently herded around with 20 cheerleaders, 16 moms, 2 coaches and 1 advisor or any combination of the above.
Friday, Day 1, February 10, 2006 Plan: MK while DD had cheer practice, then join the group at AK, dinner at Rainforest Café, then finish the night at MK
I set a wake up call for 7:00 a.m. The other moms werent as excited about hitting the parks early like I was so I planned to go alone. After I showered and dressed I made sure my DD was up. Its hard enough to get her out of bed normally, I knew it would be a miracle to get her out of bed with the two hour time difference. They had cheer practice until 10:30 after which they would shower and head to AK. I figured I had until about noon to tour MK.
I went to the bus stop at 8:00 and waited about 10 minutes for a bus. I arrived at the gates of the MK at 8:30. I liked how the resort buses got to bypass the TTC. In the past, Ive always hated how you have to wait first for a bus/tram and then you have to wait for a monorail. Not too bad if no ones at the park, but at park closing waiting with all the hordes of people to get around the Seven Seas Lagoon is tiresome after a long day. They werent opening up Main Street before park opening like they sometimes do so I waited outside the gates.
Let me insert here my frustration with CBR. The food court was a ½ mile walk from our room. I didnt want to hoof it over there to get breakfast so I thought I would get it at the park before rope drop. Well, MK didnt open Main Street so I was pretty hungry, but didnt now want to stop and eat when the ride lines were at their least crowded. I wish CBR had some kind of food thing at each island. It doesnt need to be as elaborate as a food court, but being able to buy something for breakfast without having it take an hour would be great. Maybe they do have something that I never found.
At 9:00 they opened the gates and I headed toward the Liberty Square entrance. There were 3 HM CMs there that stopped me from passing. About 4 more people joined me and the HM CMs walked in front of us in a line so we couldnt pass. I thought it was kind of funny that theyd do that for 5 people. Its not like we would have killed each other running to the attractions! At the left turn toward Splash Mountain, about 10 Frontierland CMs took over for the HM CMs and escorted us down to SM and BTMRR.
I headed for SM flanked in front and in back by CMs. I felt kind of weird, like I was some juvenile delinquent or something. There were only a few people at the line and I got my own boat. I was in Disneyland in September so the rides there were still somewhat fresh on my mind and I could compare. I think SM in WDW is slightly better than the one in DL. When I got off the ride a CM approached me and informed me I was the first rider of the day and had won some things because of it. Whew hoo!!! She took me over to where you can view the pictures and said I had won a free picture and free FPs to SM, BTMRR, and any FP ride of my choice. They showed me my picture. There I was totally ALONE on the boat and my hoodie was covering my face. I thought what a pathetic picture! I get a free picture and it has to be this one??? It was actually kind of funny and the CMs asked if I was with anyone. I told them that I wasnt at the moment but that I would be joining a big group later. So they wrote me out a paper and said I could come back and buy one with my group. Thank heavens!!! Thats not one I would have been proud framing and showing off. Then they gave me FPs for 6 on SM, FPs for 6 on BTMRR, and FPs for 5 on any FP ride of my choice.
I skipped BTMRR because of the FPs that Id just gotten and went to my all time favorite attraction-THE HAUNTED MANSION!!! I just love this ride and it was closed for refurbishment in DL in September so I hadnt ridden it in years. There were only a few people there so I walked right on. I absolutely love the ballroom scene and the hitchhiking ghosts.
WDW is much larger than DL so it took about 10 minutes to walk from HM to Space Mountain. It was around 10ish and the line was already 40 minutes long. I got a FP (10:30-11:30) and went and hopped in the stand by line (20 min) for Buzz. The line was more like 5 minutes. I got a whopping 41,500 points. For some reason, Ive never been able to get very high on this ride. The guns at WDW are attached to the car so its hard to maneuver them. In DL they are attached to a long cord so you can aim better. Both rides were comparable, but because of the gun thing, I think I like DL better.
It wasnt time for my FP yet, so I went to check out Stitchs Great Escape. What a waste of a good 20 minutes. This is the stupidest attraction Ive ever been on. I guess if you like smelly burps you might get a thrill, but my suggestion is dont waste your time on this attraction.
I had heard a lot about Mickeys Philharmagic so I went here next. I timed it just right because they were filling the theatre when I got there. This is a very cute, fun 4D attraction. It has a lot of the different Disney films featured in it.
It was close to 11 so I went to Space Mountain for my FP. The ride was having technical difficulties and they told me to come back later and they would honor my FP all day long. I already knew that they honor any FP all day long, BTW. I was pretty hungry by now so I decided now would be a good time to get breakfast. I went to the bakery on Main Street and waited about 10 minutes. I ordered a breakfast crosandwich, a banana, and some chocolate milk ($9.18). When I went to pay my credit card was declined twice. My card is getting old and sometimes they have to input it by hand. She tried it twice by hand and it was declined, so I paid cash. There was no where to sit so I went out and sat against the wall of the bakery and called the credit card company. The last thing I needed was not to be able to use my credit card at WDW. The problem was that both times she had input the expiration date wrong. They assured me that all was well, and if I needed to have them do it by hand again to make sure they got all the numbers right and the expiration date right.
I ate my breakfast after getting that resolved. The breakfast sandwich was not my favorite thing. They used cheese like Velveeta cheese instead of regular cheese. Too strong and too gooey.
After breakfast, I thought about going to Adventureland until I came up to the information board at the hub. I asked about Space Mountains status and they told me it was open so off to Tomorrowland I went. I also did not ride this in DL because I was with my 5 year old and it was too scary for her so it had been years since Id ridden this. Id forgotten how fun that ride is. I had a blast.
I went to Adventureland and got a FP to JC (12:30-1:30) and got in the line for POTC. I cant remember much difference in POTC between WDW and DL. I think DL might have more hills that the boats go down. They were pretty comparable.
After POTC, I noticed that my DD had called. I couldnt get my phone to work for a second and started panicking wondering how I was ever going to keep track of my DD without my phone. I finally got it working and called her back. They were on a bus heading for AK. I quickly forgot about my FP for JC and headed out of the park at 12:35. I got on the monorail to the TTC and caught a bus to AK.
I caught up with my DD and her big group at Primeval Whirl at about 1:20, after asking at the front gate whether EE was open. No!!! It wasnt and it wasnt going to be at all that day!!! The group had already rode Dinosaur. They were waiting in a long line at Primeval Whirl. I asked them why they werent using FP and they all said because they didnt think 20 minutes was that long. The cheerleaders spent the whole trip complaining about not having enough time to shop. I kept thinking if they would just use FP they could shop in between FP times. I didnt want to force my views on anybody though, so I kept quiet.
This was my first time riding PW. We have a ride similar to it at the amusement park 5 minutes from my house that was much better than this. The ride at home twists and turns more. Its not that it wasnt fun, but I just had a better option right in my own backyard.
Touring with a group is a whole other story. We spent a lot of time dilly dallying and I kept having to remind myself that we were here for the girls and if they wanted to dilly dally that was just fine. We went to KS and spent 5 minutes trying to figure out if we wanted to do the safari or go to the Lion King show. We couldnt do both and be at Rainforest Café for our dinner. A group decided to go to Lion King and another group went to the safari. I went with the safari group and was actually able to talk them into getting a FP (2:40-3:40) by telling them they could go watch ITTBAB while waiting for their FP time.
We went to ITTBAB and waited about 10 minutes for the next show. It was so funny to see some of the cheerleaders who were sitting in front of me try to reach out and grab the 3D objects, or duck when something shot out from the screen. I didnt think this was quite as cute as Mickeys Philharmagic, but still it was fun. I dont remember much of it because I had my 5 year old with me and she was freaked out so I spent all my time calming her down. This is not a ride for the young ones. If you want 3D for little kids try Muppetvision at the studios or Mickeys Philharmagic at MK.
We went back to the safari to use our FPs. The FP line was quite long. We heard that the ride had broken down for a brief period so we assumed that was why the long line. It took about 15 minutes to get on. The cheerleaders loved all the animals. The ride was more bumpy than I remembered it. I mean this in a good way if you like thrills. It was fun to bounce around and they actually drove the trucks fast in some spots.
We had a little time to kill before we needed to be at Rainforest Café so we took some pictures and got a drink. We had a group PS at 4:15 at Rainforest but they were not ready until about 4:45. We had pre-signed up for our meals and my DD had signed both of us up for turkey wraps. They were kind of bland, but okay because we were really hungry. I had not had anything since my breakfast sandwich at 11 that morning. When I travel I eat a lot less because I hate wasting time in food lines and restaurants. The wrap came with cole slaw and a dessert of ice cream and cookie.
It was nearing 5:30 when we finished and we got in the line for the bus to the TTC so we could go to MK. So far Disney transportation had been acceptable to me, but this time we waited 45 minutes for a bus. The first bus came after about 10 minutes but because AK had just closed there were more people in line than that bus could accommodate. Then the next bus was a lot longer than the 20 minutes it was supposed to be. Then we had to go on the monorail to MK once at the TTC. So we didnt arrive in MK until 7:00. The girls had preliminaries the next day so they had a curfew of 9:00. We rushed up to Splash Mountain to use my FPs that I got earlier, but found that it was walk on so we didnt need to use them yet. We all planned what we were going to do for our picture because we knew it would be free and I promised to make everyone a copy. On our boat was 3 cheerleaders, me, one of the cheerleaders parents and her brother. When we got off the ride and looked at the pictures we all laughed because the parents of the cheerleader had been in the back and when the picture was taken they were kissing. We decided to go again because there was still no line. We had to wait a little bit for the picture, but finally got it and went to HM. There was no wait to HM either. Im sure the crowds were watching the parade and preparing for the fireworks so there were no lines. We walked in front of the castle and dodged bodies who were waiting for the fireworks on our way to Space Mountain. MK was closing to the public at 8:00, but was staying open for the cheerleaders. We put our wristbands on and got in line. The wait for Space Mountain was about 10 minutes. We were cutting it close because the girls needed to be back for curfew, but we couldnt resist riding SM. As soon as the ride was over I escorted the cheerleaders to the bus stop which they arrived at at 8:25.
I decided I was going to try to go to the EMH at Epcot. I went over to the monorail to go to the TTC to catch the monorail to Epcot. The line was huge. There was this old duffer dressed in purple pants, purple shirt and a sequined purple vest and white shoes. He had dyed black hair and suddenly he started talking to me like he was Forest Gump. It was so random and I wasnt sure why he had picked me. I called my DD on my cell phone just so I would have an excuse to ignore him.
She was still waiting in line and the line was long. It was 8:45 and she was going to miss curfew. It ended up that they didnt get back to CBR until 9:40, but so did all the other cheerleaders. Even the coach had had a hard time with Disney transportation so she let them off this time. We decided we had to get to our bus stops at the very least an hour before we needed to be somewhere which is an unfortunate waste of a good hour. I vowed this night that I would rent a car forever and ever hereafter.
Anyway, I managed to get on the monorail and got to Epcot about 10. The line to get wristbands for EMH was long and I needed to be back at CBR to braid my DDs hair and a few other cheerleaders hair whose moms didnt come for their performance the next day, so after all that I decided to just go back to the CBR. I should have just stayed at MK and watched the fireworks and rode a few rides that were open for the cheerleaders rather than try to do the EMH at Epcot. I waited 20 minutes for the bus back to CBR. Im vowing the whole time that I will rent a car, but realistically once I park and catch a tram it would probably be just as annoying. Its just one of those annoying facts of life about WDW.
I got back to CBR at 10:30 and braided DD and one other cheerleaders hair. I got DD to bed so she would be rested for preliminaries the next day and literally fell into bed at midnight. Wow!!! What a day!!!
Highlights: First person on Splash Mountain
Downers: Disney transportation, Expedition Everest closed
Me 42 year old Disney lover and cheer mom, 5th visit to WDW
DD 17 year old cheerleader, 3rd visit to WDW
19 other 16-18 year old cheerleaders
15 other moms
2 dads
3 siblings (not mine, but other group members)
1 son in law (not mine, but other group members)
2 coaches
1 advisor
Sheesh!!!
My DD is a cheerleader at her high school and we went down to WDW for the UCA National Cheerleading Competition February 11-12. This report is a solo/group combo as there was a lot of time when I visited the attractions solo and other times when I patiently herded around with 20 cheerleaders, 16 moms, 2 coaches and 1 advisor or any combination of the above.
Friday, Day 1, February 10, 2006 Plan: MK while DD had cheer practice, then join the group at AK, dinner at Rainforest Café, then finish the night at MK
I set a wake up call for 7:00 a.m. The other moms werent as excited about hitting the parks early like I was so I planned to go alone. After I showered and dressed I made sure my DD was up. Its hard enough to get her out of bed normally, I knew it would be a miracle to get her out of bed with the two hour time difference. They had cheer practice until 10:30 after which they would shower and head to AK. I figured I had until about noon to tour MK.
I went to the bus stop at 8:00 and waited about 10 minutes for a bus. I arrived at the gates of the MK at 8:30. I liked how the resort buses got to bypass the TTC. In the past, Ive always hated how you have to wait first for a bus/tram and then you have to wait for a monorail. Not too bad if no ones at the park, but at park closing waiting with all the hordes of people to get around the Seven Seas Lagoon is tiresome after a long day. They werent opening up Main Street before park opening like they sometimes do so I waited outside the gates.
Let me insert here my frustration with CBR. The food court was a ½ mile walk from our room. I didnt want to hoof it over there to get breakfast so I thought I would get it at the park before rope drop. Well, MK didnt open Main Street so I was pretty hungry, but didnt now want to stop and eat when the ride lines were at their least crowded. I wish CBR had some kind of food thing at each island. It doesnt need to be as elaborate as a food court, but being able to buy something for breakfast without having it take an hour would be great. Maybe they do have something that I never found.
At 9:00 they opened the gates and I headed toward the Liberty Square entrance. There were 3 HM CMs there that stopped me from passing. About 4 more people joined me and the HM CMs walked in front of us in a line so we couldnt pass. I thought it was kind of funny that theyd do that for 5 people. Its not like we would have killed each other running to the attractions! At the left turn toward Splash Mountain, about 10 Frontierland CMs took over for the HM CMs and escorted us down to SM and BTMRR.
I headed for SM flanked in front and in back by CMs. I felt kind of weird, like I was some juvenile delinquent or something. There were only a few people at the line and I got my own boat. I was in Disneyland in September so the rides there were still somewhat fresh on my mind and I could compare. I think SM in WDW is slightly better than the one in DL. When I got off the ride a CM approached me and informed me I was the first rider of the day and had won some things because of it. Whew hoo!!! She took me over to where you can view the pictures and said I had won a free picture and free FPs to SM, BTMRR, and any FP ride of my choice. They showed me my picture. There I was totally ALONE on the boat and my hoodie was covering my face. I thought what a pathetic picture! I get a free picture and it has to be this one??? It was actually kind of funny and the CMs asked if I was with anyone. I told them that I wasnt at the moment but that I would be joining a big group later. So they wrote me out a paper and said I could come back and buy one with my group. Thank heavens!!! Thats not one I would have been proud framing and showing off. Then they gave me FPs for 6 on SM, FPs for 6 on BTMRR, and FPs for 5 on any FP ride of my choice.
I skipped BTMRR because of the FPs that Id just gotten and went to my all time favorite attraction-THE HAUNTED MANSION!!! I just love this ride and it was closed for refurbishment in DL in September so I hadnt ridden it in years. There were only a few people there so I walked right on. I absolutely love the ballroom scene and the hitchhiking ghosts.
WDW is much larger than DL so it took about 10 minutes to walk from HM to Space Mountain. It was around 10ish and the line was already 40 minutes long. I got a FP (10:30-11:30) and went and hopped in the stand by line (20 min) for Buzz. The line was more like 5 minutes. I got a whopping 41,500 points. For some reason, Ive never been able to get very high on this ride. The guns at WDW are attached to the car so its hard to maneuver them. In DL they are attached to a long cord so you can aim better. Both rides were comparable, but because of the gun thing, I think I like DL better.
It wasnt time for my FP yet, so I went to check out Stitchs Great Escape. What a waste of a good 20 minutes. This is the stupidest attraction Ive ever been on. I guess if you like smelly burps you might get a thrill, but my suggestion is dont waste your time on this attraction.
I had heard a lot about Mickeys Philharmagic so I went here next. I timed it just right because they were filling the theatre when I got there. This is a very cute, fun 4D attraction. It has a lot of the different Disney films featured in it.
It was close to 11 so I went to Space Mountain for my FP. The ride was having technical difficulties and they told me to come back later and they would honor my FP all day long. I already knew that they honor any FP all day long, BTW. I was pretty hungry by now so I decided now would be a good time to get breakfast. I went to the bakery on Main Street and waited about 10 minutes. I ordered a breakfast crosandwich, a banana, and some chocolate milk ($9.18). When I went to pay my credit card was declined twice. My card is getting old and sometimes they have to input it by hand. She tried it twice by hand and it was declined, so I paid cash. There was no where to sit so I went out and sat against the wall of the bakery and called the credit card company. The last thing I needed was not to be able to use my credit card at WDW. The problem was that both times she had input the expiration date wrong. They assured me that all was well, and if I needed to have them do it by hand again to make sure they got all the numbers right and the expiration date right.
I ate my breakfast after getting that resolved. The breakfast sandwich was not my favorite thing. They used cheese like Velveeta cheese instead of regular cheese. Too strong and too gooey.
After breakfast, I thought about going to Adventureland until I came up to the information board at the hub. I asked about Space Mountains status and they told me it was open so off to Tomorrowland I went. I also did not ride this in DL because I was with my 5 year old and it was too scary for her so it had been years since Id ridden this. Id forgotten how fun that ride is. I had a blast.
I went to Adventureland and got a FP to JC (12:30-1:30) and got in the line for POTC. I cant remember much difference in POTC between WDW and DL. I think DL might have more hills that the boats go down. They were pretty comparable.
After POTC, I noticed that my DD had called. I couldnt get my phone to work for a second and started panicking wondering how I was ever going to keep track of my DD without my phone. I finally got it working and called her back. They were on a bus heading for AK. I quickly forgot about my FP for JC and headed out of the park at 12:35. I got on the monorail to the TTC and caught a bus to AK.
I caught up with my DD and her big group at Primeval Whirl at about 1:20, after asking at the front gate whether EE was open. No!!! It wasnt and it wasnt going to be at all that day!!! The group had already rode Dinosaur. They were waiting in a long line at Primeval Whirl. I asked them why they werent using FP and they all said because they didnt think 20 minutes was that long. The cheerleaders spent the whole trip complaining about not having enough time to shop. I kept thinking if they would just use FP they could shop in between FP times. I didnt want to force my views on anybody though, so I kept quiet.
This was my first time riding PW. We have a ride similar to it at the amusement park 5 minutes from my house that was much better than this. The ride at home twists and turns more. Its not that it wasnt fun, but I just had a better option right in my own backyard.
Touring with a group is a whole other story. We spent a lot of time dilly dallying and I kept having to remind myself that we were here for the girls and if they wanted to dilly dally that was just fine. We went to KS and spent 5 minutes trying to figure out if we wanted to do the safari or go to the Lion King show. We couldnt do both and be at Rainforest Café for our dinner. A group decided to go to Lion King and another group went to the safari. I went with the safari group and was actually able to talk them into getting a FP (2:40-3:40) by telling them they could go watch ITTBAB while waiting for their FP time.
We went to ITTBAB and waited about 10 minutes for the next show. It was so funny to see some of the cheerleaders who were sitting in front of me try to reach out and grab the 3D objects, or duck when something shot out from the screen. I didnt think this was quite as cute as Mickeys Philharmagic, but still it was fun. I dont remember much of it because I had my 5 year old with me and she was freaked out so I spent all my time calming her down. This is not a ride for the young ones. If you want 3D for little kids try Muppetvision at the studios or Mickeys Philharmagic at MK.
We went back to the safari to use our FPs. The FP line was quite long. We heard that the ride had broken down for a brief period so we assumed that was why the long line. It took about 15 minutes to get on. The cheerleaders loved all the animals. The ride was more bumpy than I remembered it. I mean this in a good way if you like thrills. It was fun to bounce around and they actually drove the trucks fast in some spots.
We had a little time to kill before we needed to be at Rainforest Café so we took some pictures and got a drink. We had a group PS at 4:15 at Rainforest but they were not ready until about 4:45. We had pre-signed up for our meals and my DD had signed both of us up for turkey wraps. They were kind of bland, but okay because we were really hungry. I had not had anything since my breakfast sandwich at 11 that morning. When I travel I eat a lot less because I hate wasting time in food lines and restaurants. The wrap came with cole slaw and a dessert of ice cream and cookie.
It was nearing 5:30 when we finished and we got in the line for the bus to the TTC so we could go to MK. So far Disney transportation had been acceptable to me, but this time we waited 45 minutes for a bus. The first bus came after about 10 minutes but because AK had just closed there were more people in line than that bus could accommodate. Then the next bus was a lot longer than the 20 minutes it was supposed to be. Then we had to go on the monorail to MK once at the TTC. So we didnt arrive in MK until 7:00. The girls had preliminaries the next day so they had a curfew of 9:00. We rushed up to Splash Mountain to use my FPs that I got earlier, but found that it was walk on so we didnt need to use them yet. We all planned what we were going to do for our picture because we knew it would be free and I promised to make everyone a copy. On our boat was 3 cheerleaders, me, one of the cheerleaders parents and her brother. When we got off the ride and looked at the pictures we all laughed because the parents of the cheerleader had been in the back and when the picture was taken they were kissing. We decided to go again because there was still no line. We had to wait a little bit for the picture, but finally got it and went to HM. There was no wait to HM either. Im sure the crowds were watching the parade and preparing for the fireworks so there were no lines. We walked in front of the castle and dodged bodies who were waiting for the fireworks on our way to Space Mountain. MK was closing to the public at 8:00, but was staying open for the cheerleaders. We put our wristbands on and got in line. The wait for Space Mountain was about 10 minutes. We were cutting it close because the girls needed to be back for curfew, but we couldnt resist riding SM. As soon as the ride was over I escorted the cheerleaders to the bus stop which they arrived at at 8:25.
I decided I was going to try to go to the EMH at Epcot. I went over to the monorail to go to the TTC to catch the monorail to Epcot. The line was huge. There was this old duffer dressed in purple pants, purple shirt and a sequined purple vest and white shoes. He had dyed black hair and suddenly he started talking to me like he was Forest Gump. It was so random and I wasnt sure why he had picked me. I called my DD on my cell phone just so I would have an excuse to ignore him.
She was still waiting in line and the line was long. It was 8:45 and she was going to miss curfew. It ended up that they didnt get back to CBR until 9:40, but so did all the other cheerleaders. Even the coach had had a hard time with Disney transportation so she let them off this time. We decided we had to get to our bus stops at the very least an hour before we needed to be somewhere which is an unfortunate waste of a good hour. I vowed this night that I would rent a car forever and ever hereafter.
Anyway, I managed to get on the monorail and got to Epcot about 10. The line to get wristbands for EMH was long and I needed to be back at CBR to braid my DDs hair and a few other cheerleaders hair whose moms didnt come for their performance the next day, so after all that I decided to just go back to the CBR. I should have just stayed at MK and watched the fireworks and rode a few rides that were open for the cheerleaders rather than try to do the EMH at Epcot. I waited 20 minutes for the bus back to CBR. Im vowing the whole time that I will rent a car, but realistically once I park and catch a tram it would probably be just as annoying. Its just one of those annoying facts of life about WDW.
I got back to CBR at 10:30 and braided DD and one other cheerleaders hair. I got DD to bed so she would be rested for preliminaries the next day and literally fell into bed at midnight. Wow!!! What a day!!!
Highlights: First person on Splash Mountain
Downers: Disney transportation, Expedition Everest closed
