Our Crazy, Awesome, Imperfect Trip (May 2011)- Updated 8/21

[Belle83]

Part 6: Animal Kingdom - Monday 5/23 (Day 3)
How many times can we ride Everest?
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Because of everything that happened, we weren't able to go to Animal Kingdom on Sunday (5/22), so Monday (5/23) became our new AK day, scrapping our plans for HS. I'm not a huge fan of HS, but we did have lunch reservations at Mama Melrose's and I wanted to see Fantasmic (have never seen it) and the new Star Wars ride. I would rather miss HS than AK though. After dealing with the hotel room stuff, I made dinner reservations for Sanaa for that night so we could head over after AK closed (AK closed at 7:00 p.m., our Sanaa reservation was for 8:00 p.m.).

So, we are not morning people to begin with and we came from a different time zone (MST). I knew we wouldn't be making rope drops, but I wanted to try to make it to at least make it to the parks by noon....we failed miserably. After our late night at MK, and the hotel stuff, we made it to AK around 3:30 p.m., giving us about 3 1/2 hours before the park closed.

The parking situation at AK was much easier than MK. Even though I took this picture, it took a while to find our car at the end of the day .

I love AK more and more each time I visit. This was my 3rd visit to AK. When I first went in 2000, we left the park talking about how there wasn't much to do. I went back in 2004 and grew to really like it. Now, I love it. Not as much as Epcot or Magic Kingdom, but I do love it. It's such a relaxed atmosphere, and a gorgeous park to just walk around in. They did a great job with it.

The last time I was at AK (2004), they were building Expedition Everest, so this was my #1 thing to do at AK this trip. We made a beeline to get Fast Passes for EE. Wasn't sure if they still had any because someone else kindly offered us their own FP to use. The wait was only 10 minutes (maybe less), anyway. See? No line!

I get pretty nervous about new roller coasters, even at Disney. I have to admit that I watched youtube videos of the ride to mentally prep myself. I'm fine going upside down or backwards, but I *hate* drops. It's better now that I'm older, but I've always hated that part of rides.

The ride itself was really cool, it definitely had the Disney touch. The first time we went on it, I was too nervous to notice much of the details on the ride or check out the view on the way up. The backwards part is awesome! That's probably the most intense part, but it didn't bother me like a drop does. The drop was crazy because (1) it's kind of out of nowhere, the anticipation builds and (2) it's partly in the dark (for some reason drops are easier with your eyes open, oddly enough). My SO absolutely loved Everest. I enjoyed it but I don't love it like I do Screamin' or Space Mountain. Another view of Everest:

Since we had a short amount of time, our next stop was trying to get Fast Passes for Kilimanjaro Safari. Walked by these:

We caught part of Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade while we walked to Kilimanjaro. I should say we followed the parade...I love the parades but wish they would change the music for this one.

We found Kilimanjaro, but the parade route blocked the entrance. A CM told us to go through the FP line (even though we didn't have any). We walked right on Kilimanjaro.

Love the safari, you always see lots of great animals. We saw a lion (sort of) giraffes, hippos, and an ostrich took her time blocking our path. No zebras this time.

See how pretty this park is? Love! This was by Tusker House. We didn’t eat there, but at this point we were starving.

We made our way to the other side of the park for Flame Tree BBQ. This was my first time here. I ordered a pulled pork sandwich, my SO ordered the ribs. Yum!

After eating, we went to Dinosaur. This ride makes me miss Disneyland (CA) because the Indiana Jones version is so much better. Again, not much of a wait! This is such a change from when I first went in 2000...

After Dinosaur, we went back to Everest to ride it 2 more times. We didn't have to wait long...

Took this while on Everest.

Same with this, you can sort of see our hotel...

Loved the scenery!

I was sad we didn't take the time for the Majarajah Jungle Trek or the Pangani Trail. We were pretty much running around from ride to ride without stopping. Looking back, I know my SO feels the same way, even though he had a blast riding Everest a bunch of times. We did the best we could for 3 1/2 hours! I don't think he realized that Kali River Rapids existed, but I wasn't in the mood to deal with wet clothes so I didn't point it out By that point I had chocolate all over my clothes from a Mickey bar (because even though I'm an adult, I can't manage to eat Mickey bars like one...) and was ready to leave.

Our day at AK coming to an end:

Found this on the way out, I love seahorses.

As the park closed, we decided to skip our Sanaa reservation and visit Hollywood Studios that night instead. I still really want to try Sanaa, but it will have to wait until our next trip I suppose.

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[lbuzz52]

I love everest!
My dh would love your touring schedule!

And I wanted to let you know you aren't alone.. There is an ongoing joke that I need the bib more than the babies lol!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I think you guys did pretty well considering the amount of time you were there. Awesome wait times! Maybe the key to AK is to visit in the late afternoon!

 

[Belle83]

I love everest!
My dh would love your touring schedule!

And I wanted to let you know you aren't alone.. There is an ongoing joke that I need the bib more than the babies lol!

It was too hectic for me, I much prefer just taking our time...but we got there so late

I think you guys did pretty well considering the amount of time you were there. Awesome wait times! Maybe the key to AK is to visit in the late afternoon!

I checked that touring plans website to get an idea of which days to check out which parks and I think that helped. We went to parks that it said to avoid (Epcot on the day with EMH) and it was like a night and day difference.

 

[Belle83]

Part 7: Hollywood Studios - Monday 5/23 (Day 3)
Is there a knee surgeon at WDW?
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I wasn't sure if we were going to make it to Hollywood Studios this trip, but it had Extra Magic Hours from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. on Monday, and we had the evening open. We had to buy park hoppers at the gate (this was the only day we used them, though).

We arrived around 9:30 p.m., I could hear Fantasmic from the parking lot. We went straight to Star Tours, the wait was only about 10 or 20 min. Our trip was during Star Wars Weekends, but we made it a point to avoid HS on those days. The new Star Tours ride was cool, but I miss the original version.

After Star Tours, we grabbed dinner (turkey legs!) and ate outside of Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. At this point, someone gave us their Fast Passes for Tower of Terror. I hate Tower of Terror. I've never been, but I can't stand rides that just..drop. I was considering going on it just so my SO could experience it (he didn't want to go alone), but looking at the ride started to give me serious anxiety. We went on to Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, which I love. The line was about 40 minutes, but we were behind a group of high school students which kept us entertained.

At this point, my SO seemed quieter but wouldn't say what was bothering him. We headed over to Toy Story Mania, which had a 45 minute wait. Great line area though.

The ride was great! I might not have checked it out if I hadn't seen all the commotion about it here, but we had fun. Our scores (my SO won):

Our last ride of the night was The Great Movie Ride. For some reason I remembered this being a boat ride, but I was wrong. Enjoyed the ride, made me want to curl up and watch Wizard of Oz.

We left the park around 12 a.m., right as it closed.

On our way back to the hotel, my SO explained that his knee was killing him, but he didn't want to say anything about it earlier. He had knee surgery a few years ago, and the humidity/heat combined with all the walking really made his knee act up. It was filled with fluid (gross) and incredibly painful. I felt awful, I wish he hadn't let us run around the park...I would have much rather gone back to the hotel knowing that. This definitely impacted the rest of our trip, but more on that later.

At the hotel, I grabbed more food from Picabu and became friends with the ice machine on our floor. Our plans for Tuesday were Magic Kingdom, but with the knee issue I wasn't sure if we would be going anywhere!

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[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I feel so bad for him! How sweet of him to not want to say anything because he didn't want to ruin your fun.

 

[rndmr2]

Found your TR from mine and got a chance to catch up on your updates tonight. Sorry you had so many mishaps but what a great room upgrade! You saw a lot in the short times you were in the parks those first couple days. I finally got on EE this trip, too - we were there in 2004 when they were building it too, then we were there last year but DH wouldn't get on it with me. Hope the knee isn't too much of a problem...

 

[Belle83]

Part 8: Magic Kingdom - Tuesday 5/24 (Day 4) ​

Hotel Time, My Favorite Park, & Dinner at California Grill
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We spent most of our day relaxing at our hotel watching the Casey Anthony trial. My SO needed to ice his knee and stay off of it, so as much as I was dying to get over to the Magic Kingdom, we stayed put. At least we had an awesome room to hang out in.

Had lunch at Picabu (quick service cafeteria at the Dolphin). We had lunch reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern, but missed them to stay at the hotel.

Nothing like paying almost $30 for hamburgers at WDW! In all fairness, they were delicious and more restaurant style than fast food.

In hindsight, I wish I had taken the day to check out our pool...but I wasn't feeling particularly swimsuit-ready .

We didn't get to Magic Kingdom until 6 p.m. I know we needed to take it easy that day, but I was really looking forward to having an entire day at Magic Kingdom.

After arriving, we went right to Adventureland. I'd never had a Dole Whip, so thought it was time to try one. I thought it was good, but not amazing or anything.

We went on Jungle Cruise first. Jungle Cruise has a special place in my heart, as it was my very first Disney ride on my first trip to Disneyland as a kid. Line was 15 minutes (took us 10), we got to test the line wait with one of those red passes.

After Jungle Cruise, my SO picked up a raspberry lemonade slushie thing from Sunshine Tree Terrace. It was great, not too sweet. Next up was Pirates of the Caribbean. This was my first time on the revamped version, I'm glad they didn't change too much. We walked right on, which I've never done with POTC.

The view along the way to Haunted Mansion from POTC, I think this was from Frontierland.

We were all about the snacks at Magic Kingdom this day, lol. On our way to HM, I bought a churro (my absolute favorite) in Liberty Square, and my SO bought frozen coke. A trip to MK just isn't complete without a churro. HM is one of my favorite rides, and they've changed a few things with this one too since my last trip.

Our last ride for the day was Space Mountain, walking through Fantasyland to get there. I love this pic.

The line for Space Mountain was posted at 40 minutes, but it only took about 20 to 30. The park closed at 9 p.m., and we had reservations at California Grill for 9:40 p.m. We left Space Mountain a little before 9 p.m. and caught what I think was the Kiss Goodnight? It was videos on the castle (very cool!). Wishes was about to start but we couldn't stick around because we had to move our car from the MK parking lot to the Contemporary parking lot for dinner. We made our way through the crowds to leave, caught some of the Wishes fireworks from the monorail, drove a few circles because we kept missing the turns for the Contemporary, and finally arrived barely on time for our reservation.

I checked in at CG, my SO parked the car, and then they brought us up to the restaurant. We had just enough time to check out the view of MK from the restaurant, it was great! I'm not sure if we could have watched Wishes from MK before our reservation, but I bet they would have let us. I took these pictures from the viewing area (the first of the castle, the second is of Main Street and the bus area).

Dinner was AMAZING. We ordered the triple cheese flatbread as an appetizer. I had the grilled pork tenderloin, and my SO had the oak-fired beef. I'm not sure what exactly our dessert was, but it was fabulous. A pic of our dessert:

I love the confetti and birthday message! My SO's birthday was not until the 26th, but I let CG know we were celebrating anyway

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[Lifelong_Dreamer]

We left Space Mountain a little before 9 p.m. and caught what I think was the Kiss Goodnight? It was videos on the castle (very cool!). Wishes was about to start but we couldn't stick around because we had to move our car from the MK parking lot to the Contemporary parking lot for dinner.

That would have been the Magic, Memories and You show that they play every night before Wishes, they started it a few months ago. It is a mix of photopass photos and personal photos and video that guests have submitted.

 

[Chaitali]

Hi, I just came across your trip report and I'm enjoying reading it The dessert at California Grill looks really similar to the dessert I had there earlier in May. It was a caramel bread pudding with pineapple (though I forget the ice cream flavor). It was amazing. Look forward to reading more about your trip

 

[Belle83]

Part 9: Islands of Adventure – Wednesday 5/25 (Day 5)
Betraying Disney
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This was my first time leaving Disney for other theme parks in FL, and it wasn’t as bad as I thought. We wanted to check out Harry Potter so we set aside two days for Universal/Islands of Adventure. In keeping with the rest of our trip, we didn’t make it to Islands of Adventure until about 4 p.m. I had prepaid for the Express Pass for the day (it’s like a Fast Pass but you can use it any time of day, once per ride) so we picked those up first.

Our first stop was the Hulk. It only had a 5 minute wait, so we didn’t need our Express Passes. I knew it was an accelerated launch coaster, and that it was supposed to be more intense than California Adventure’s Screamin’. I love accelerated launch coasters, there’s not much time to freak out about the upcoming drop(s). Hulk was great! I actually found it less intense than CA's Screamin’, because with Hulk, you don’t ever have that drop feeling in your stomach, if you can believe it. I’m glad we did Hulk first, so I didn’t spend the entire day nervous about it.

After Hulk, we went on Storm Force Acceletron (similar to teacups at MK), and then had lunch at Café 4. Café 4 is a quick service pizza place, which just made me miss Disney. The pizza itself was fine, not horrible but not fantastic. The annoying part was that there weren’t any napkins by the utensils, you had to get them from the cashier. This wouldn’t be so bad if the cashier thought to give them to you in the first place, so you didn’t have to accost her later to try to grab some. There was also a video arcade connected to the area, which sort of cheapened the whole area. Anyway, moving on! This picture was taken outside of Café 4:

After eating, we ran into Spiderman. I had no idea what type of ride it was or how popular it was, but the line was 45 minutes so we figured it must be worth checking out. We used our Express Pass (awesome!) and walked right on. We were blown away by the ride. It was awesome, beyond anything at Disney (even Soarin’, possibly). Not to be missed!

Our next stop was the Dragon Challenge at Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We only had our Express Passes for today so we wanted to use them on the Dragon Challenge. Again, didn’t need them…the line was only 5 minutes or maybe less. We picked the blue side, and were in the second from front row. We also bought some Butterbeer and briefly walked around Harry Potter, but decided to come back the next day and spend more time there. The Butterbeer was delicious, the best way I can describe it is cream soda with butterscotch on top.

Went to Jurassic Park next. This ride has intimidated me since it came out in California. Because I'm weird about rides, I had researchd the ride and decided that even though it was a longer drop, it wasn’t as steep as Splash Mountain and I would survive. Checked out the youtube videos to get an idea of when the drop happens. It was much more intense than Splash Mountain. My SO is larger than I am, so the bar was higher and I had quite bit of air time while we dropped. Maybe it felt more intense because it was dark and you can't see anything, but I'm not sure if I would go again.

As we left the park, we thought about stopping at Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls but people coming off of the ride were drenched. They don’t offer free lockers for this ride like others, so we decided to come back the next day with Ziplocs for the ride.

So true!

Went on Hulk one more time on our way out. Islands of Adventure closed at 7 p.m., but for some reason I thought Universal was open until 8 p.m. so we walked over to Universal.

Universal was closed, the extra walking was for nothing. Bummer. Back to the parking lot we go! The parking lot situation at Universal really cannot compare to Disney, those moving walkways are not nearly as helpful as the trams. We decided that we would pay for preferred parking when we came back the next day.

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[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Yum, butterbeer, so good!

Sounds and looks like a low crowd day!

You are so lucky! When we were there the week before you the Jurassic Park ride was in refurb so we didn't get to ride.

 

[Belle83]

Part 10: BoardWalk – Wednesday 5/25 (Day 5)
Alone Time at Disney's BoardWalk
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After our day at Islands of Adventure, my SO needed to ice his knee. I decided to head out and explore the BoardWalk area on my own. I would love to take a quick solo trip to WDW someday, so this gave me some alone time to test the waters.

First, I stopped at our hotel's gift shop (Daisy's Garden), to start souvenir shopping. I love the pens I bought, I bought similar ones on my last trip in 2004 and loved them.

Our hotel was really pretty at night:

The walk was fairly quick to the BoardWalk.

It was pretty empty, but stores were still open. I checked out the Disney store by the hotel, I forget the name of it though. Didn't buy anything, but I hadn't really done much shopping yet so I wanted to get an idea of what they had.

Would love to stay here!!

I was looking for dinner, hadn't had anything to eat since the lovely pizza experience earlier that day. I found the BoardWalk Bakery, which was open for another 20 minutes. There wasn't much of a line, but it took forever. I bought the tomato mozzarella sandwich, which was actually pretty disappointing because the pesto mayonnaise made the sandwich soggy and the bread was mushy. Also picked up some croissants for breakfast for the next morning (regular for me, chocolate for my SO). The croissants were pretty mediocre, too.

I walked the entire loop so I could check out the Beach Club and Yacht Club too. Stormalong Bay looked awesome! Here are more pics from the evening:

After I got back to the hotel room, my SO needed to do some laundry so we went back down to Picabu and the laundry area (pretty much next door to Picabu). That was it for the day!

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[Chaitali]

Your Islands of Adventure Day sounds fun. We haven't made it over there yet but I'd love to as I am a big Harry Potter fan That was a brilliant move on Universal's part. Quick question, is the Jurassic Park ride the type of ride you get wet on?

 

[Belle83]

Found your TR from mine and got a chance to catch up on your updates tonight. Sorry you had so many mishaps but what a great room upgrade! You saw a lot in the short times you were in the parks those first couple days. I finally got on EE this trip, too - we were there in 2004 when they were building it too, then we were there last year but DH wouldn't get on it with me. Hope the knee isn't too much of a problem...

Thanks for reading! We did see a lot, but we got lucky with lines too.

Hi, I just came across your trip report and I'm enjoying reading it The dessert at California Grill looks really similar to the dessert I had there earlier in May. It was a caramel bread pudding with pineapple (though I forget the ice cream flavor). It was amazing. Look forward to reading more about your trip

Thanks! Ours was apple with some type of bread pudding, soooo good!

Yum, butterbeer, so good!

Sounds and looks like a low crowd day!

You are so lucky! When we were there the week before you the Jurassic Park ride was in refurb so we didn't get to ride.

I had no idea, I’m glad I was able to try it (at least once). They did a nice job with the themeing of it.

Your Islands of Adventure Day sounds fun. We haven't made it over there yet but I'd love to as I am a big Harry Potter fan That was a brilliant move on Universal's part. Quick question, is the Jurassic Park ride the type of ride you get wet on?

Yes, but not like Ripsaw Falls or Popeye’s where you get drenched. We were in the second row and we got a little wet, but the people near the back didn’t. Harry Potter was awesome, I took a lot more pictures the next day.

 

[ctink23]

I have been at a conference for a few days and missed so many updates!

Great updates! Sorry to hear about your SO's knee, but he is such a trooper!

 

[Becc1]

All caught up on your report. I am jealous that you guys got to do those PM EMH's, with 3 young ones it's just not an option for us right now . Can't wait to hear more!

 

[Ms. Heimlich]

Loving your report!!

You are making me regret not getting tix to universal!! Ack! I guess I will just have to plan another trip!

 

[Candy30]

So loving your report. Your room upgrades were awesome! I love Universal and The Hulk and Spiderman are the Best. The Mummy is awesome too! Jurrasic parks Dip is HUGE!!! After the ride the pictures of peoples faces are hilarious! Including your own. ! Can't wait to hear about your second day there. We used one day for both parks which wasn't too bad but I could have used another day.

 

[Belle83]

Part 11: Universal Studios - Thursday 5/26 (Day 6)
Facing Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit
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Today was our second day for Universal. I bought their park-to-park tickets, so we were planning to spend most of the day at Universal Studios, and then finish our day at Wizarding World of Harry Potter. This was also my SO's birthday (34th), and had dinner plans at Shula's to celebrate. We made it to Universal Studios by 2 p.m., a record for us. Chose to pay for preferred parking because of my SO's knee (the parking situation at Universal kind of sucks imo). Totally worth the $$ for us.

We walked by Rip Ride Rockit on the way in, but the wait was 45 minutes. It looks so intimidating. I told my SO I would go on it with him (it was his birthday, after all), but I didn't want to wait that long. We decided to try back later, and went to check out Twister instead (it had a 5 minute wait). Twister is a special effects show, but for some reason I thought they would be sticking us in some kind of wind tunnel. The best part of the whole ride was the video with Bill Paxton. We still laugh so hard about this, you have to watch the video on youtube.

After Twister, we went to Revenge of the Mummy (a 10 minute wait!). What a great ride! The special effects are so cool (the fire, especially). It's too bad we were sitting by some pretty obnoxious girls. This ride was awesome, I love roller coasters that are in the dark...but this was more than just a roller coaster. Very very cool.

We kind of wandered around after that. Walked toward the Simpsons ride, and my SO of course had to check out the Kwik-E-Mart.

He walked out of here with a lot of Simpsons stuff, lol.

The line for the Simpsons ride was about 20 minutes, but we were more interested in Men in Black so we went toward that. MIB had a 30 minute wait, but most of it was inside so that was nice. At this point we considered buying the Express Passes but by the time we were in line it was a little late. The MIB ride was fun, but we were not happy about waiting in line (we'd been spoiled by all the good luck with ride lines).

After MIB, we were pretty hungry. We walked around looking for a table service restaurant, not knowing anything about what they had. Lombard's Seafood Grille looked good, but it was closed. I took this on our way over to Lombard's after MIB.

We found Finnegan's Bar and Grill, and got a table right away. The food was good, and they had live music. I had the potato leek soup and one of their salads, I can't remember what my SO had. A nice lunch, overall.

There were so many rides/shows to check out at Universal that we hadn't made it to yet, and I wanted to find the old Nickelodeon building to make my inner early 90s child happy, but the day was coming to an end and we wanted to leave enough time for more Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure. We made our way over to Rip Ride Rockit, which at this point only had a 15 minute wait (much to my dismay).

We walked in line for RRR, and my nerves were really getting to me. It was at this point my SO realized that you are facing straight up at the sky at the beginning of the ride, I'm not sure how it took him so long to notice? The closer we got to the loading area, the more nervous I became. I noticed another couple going through the same thing, lol (the girl was nervous, guy was trying to convince her it would be no big deal). Too soon enough, it was our turn to load. I picked the Evanescence song (Bring Me to Life), because it seemed the most calming of the options they had. I'd read that if you keep your eyes open on rides, the drops aren't as bad...and that definitely helped. The ride really wasn't bad at all, once you get over the whole trip straight up at the beginning. The first drop wasn't awful, and the music was nice and probably helped. I'd go again. I swear the drop looks worse in person, lol.

So that was our day at Universal Studios. We made our way over to Islands of Adventure next!

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