Our Disney Adventure !!! 11/5 thru 11/9

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When? November 5th - 9th 2005
Where? EPCOT, MGM Disney Studios & Magic Kingdom

Who? Me (29), Hubby (31) daughter (9), niece (9) & nephew (8)
Why? My 3rd trip, Hubby's 2nd, Dear Daughter's 2nd (fav word: "Cheesy")
FIRST TIME FOR NIECE AND NEPHEW.


Day 1....The travel day & Downtown Disney!


We landed in Orlando about 1:20 pm.
After claiming our luggage, we waited in a lonnngggg line to get
our Alamo rental car.

It felt awesome to get into our car and start zooming down the highway
with the warm breezes in our hair. The kids were excited to see palm
trees everywhere. We got excited seeing the "tourist trap" billboards
zoom by us on Hwy 4.

We stayed at a budget hotel, the Comfort Inn Lake Buena Vista.
It was close to everything we needed and suited us just fine.

After eating Pizza we decided to checkout Downtown Disney!!!
We walked by Planet Hollywood, Pleasure Island and checked out a few shops.
We were oohing and ahhing at the crazy flashing moving lights surrounding
us. The kids already started spending their money, so we had to warn them
to save some $$ for the parks.

My niece bought a "build your own My Little Pony" and stuffed her box full
of accessories...the cutest thing about her My Little Pony set was the Disney
accessories!!!! I asked her to put an extra plastic Mickey ice cream bar in
her box for me because I thought it was adorable. She did.

DD bought a "Happiest Celebration on Earth" Minnie beanie toy.
Nephew decided to save his $$$ for the parks.
I bought a "Happiest Celebration on Earth" iron-on patch for DD's Girl Scout
Uniform. Sofar, we were keeping our spending under control.

but of course that didn't last long................


Day 2....EPCOT!


After a good night's sleep, we woke up early to get the breakfast buffet at
the hotel. Nothing to boast about, but it filled us up. (The kids ate free)
We got to the EPCOT parking lot at about 8:30 and waited in line for about
15 minutes until they started to let people through the gate.
A while later, the Cast Members lined up and started cheering and trying to
get the crowd pumped.... then a red bus filled with Disney characters pulled
up!!! We were in awe. We waived and smiled from ear to ear. It was like
Hubby and I were kids again!!!! Then there was a mad rush to the right for
Soarin. We were distracted by Donald and Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse.....
everyone kept walking by them...so we stopped and said hello
and snapped some pics.

Then we joined the rest of the rush to Soarin!!!!
The wait time was 20 minutes already, but no big deal..it could be wayyy
worse so we waited in line. Our "glider" was the back row so we had a
lower view of the screen. The ride was OK. I would have enjoyed it more
with a better seat I think. The best part of the ride was when we flew
over Main Street USA at Disneyland California. (sigh)

Next it was off to TEST TRACK. Wait time was 40 minutes....no big deal we
thought. We enjoyed the line queue because there were lots of car gadgets
and crash test dummy parts all over the place.
This ride is FUN!!!!! The kids loved it sooo much that we rode it 2 more
times that day. ZZZZZZZZzooooooooooooommmmmmmmmm !!!!!

EPCOT is the park that myself, DD, niece and nephew discovered the horrible
addiction of PIN PURCHASING!!!!! I am, by no means an expert on pin trading,
but how can you pass up a $5 Disneyworld colorful laynard and cute pins to
show off the attractions you have been on???
My 1st pin purchase was one of the EPCOT ball w/Mickey's wand.
Next pin purchase was a TEST TRACK car.... oh... this is going to be a
bad thing!!!

We told ourselves ahead of time that we WOULD NOT ride Mission Space due to
the bad reviews of dizziness from others after the ride.
But, we walked by the outside of the ride and saw the planet sculptures and
figured: "WHAT THE HECK? WE SHOULD JUST TRY IT!!!"
Hubby gets majorly sick on spinny rides, nephew is a daredevil. I am OK with
most rides. DD and niece refuse to try it.
We all wait in line together (5 minute wait)
DD and niece take the chicken exit together. Then the rest of us board our
"ship". It is hard to describe the feeling of this ride...but it is ...
WEIRD!!! The launch is pretty cool...but once you are "in space" you feel
alot of pressure. After the ride was over and the doors opened up the guy
next to me high tailed it outta there. Hope he wasn't sick (????)
I felt a little bit dizzy, but the feeling went away after 10 minutes.
Hubby's tummy felt gross, so he bought a bottle of Sprite and felt better
after drinking some. Nephew wanted to go on right away. (go figure)
We said "no".

Next we went to "Spaceship Earth", as it is not a thrill ride.
The wait was 20 minutes. It seemed like a long ride once we got on.
The kids thought the ride was "cool" but "lame" and "Cheesy".
I told them, we need to enjoy the "lame" & "Cheesy" rides too.

We went to the World Showcase and ate counter service food in China, which
was the best counter service meal we had in the parks.
We were amazed at how many Disney Characters we saw at EPCOT!!!
There were a TON of them at the beginning of the World Showcase and we even
saw Mulan, Mushu, Belle, Aladdin & Genie throughout the countries.

We didn't spend a TON of time at the countries, but did have desert at the
France Bakery and rode the boat ride in Mexico twice. (Yes, the kids thought
it was "lame" & "Cheesy", yet they wanted to ride it again... go figure)

We stayed at EPCOT until 8pm, which made it 11 hours at the park.
They wanted to go back to the hotel and swim at night.
Tonight we slept really good.

 

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Day 3 ....MGM Disney Studios!!!


Wooo Hoo!!! We woke up early again today and got to MGM at park opening.
The opening was NOT as cool as EPCOT's, we didn't notice anything special
except an announcement over the sound system.
Once the park was officially open, we took a right down Sunset Blvd towards
TOWER OF TERROR, while hubby got fast passes for Rockin Rollercoaster.
TOT wait was 20 minutes.
I was very nervous about this ride because big drops make me loose my stomach,
but there was no way I was going to chicken out and regret it later. Even
my DD was a little nervous. Neice and Nephew are completely fearless.
My hubby is a goofy guy, so when the elevator door opened for the first
time, and we saw the Twilight Zone window down the hallway, he let out a
high pitched scream, which caused the entire elevator-full to burst out
laughing. I laughed too, but then my gut felt nervous again about the
upcomming drop sequences. I sat next to DD and threw my arms arround her
really tightly during the drops. (I don't think she enjoyed it)
I screamed the whole ride. I had no clue what to expect or when we would
drop or shoot back up to the windows. WHAT A RUSH!!!
Luckily, we all enjoyed the ride.

Next it was time for Rockin Rollercoaster... this was the ride I was the most
excited for. We used our fastpasses and boarded our "limo" car.
The launch was soooo freaky, but quite a rush.
Our train played "Walk this Way". The entire ride is so smooth and fun!
DD and I were singing along with the music. ROCK ON!!!!!!!!!
The funniest thing that zoomed by us on the ride was the donut.
(Wait...we zoomed through the donut....)
Hubby said his tummy hurt a little afterwards.
The exit takes you to a ...... STORE of course...so we had to buy a Rockin
Rollercoaster pin and TOT pin to add to our laynards. A Cast Member asked
me if I wanted to trade some of my pins with her, but I told her I just started
collecting and didn't want to get rid of my "special" pins yet. I must have
passed up a good opportunity though,because I later found out that Cast Members
have special pins with tiny hidden Mickeys in them that are only available
if you trade one of your pins with theirs. I guess these
pins don't last too long with the CM's.

We are pumped after riding the RNC but decide to take a break so we get seats
for Beauty and the Beast. I think Nephew was a little board, but he watched
the show anyway. I even saw him snap a picture of the Beast. Hubby isn't into
musicals. I saw funny looks on his face during the show.

Next we rode the "Great Movie Ride" ... a 20 minute wait. We had the gangster
take over our car. The kids liked this ride, especially when we went to
Munchkinland.

Then we watched the Muppet 3D movie, which was alot of fun. We all loved it.
Later we rode STAR TOURS which was a walk-on.
(niece lost her water bottle on this ride)

We were hungry so we grabbed a late lunch counter service style.
A half hour after eating, 4 of us had tummy aches from the food. I was glad
to have Pepto Bismal tablets with me... we felt better 15 minutes after
taking them.

We got a spot for the Stars & Motorcars parade, which turned out to be a
GREAT parade. We saw sooo many characters..even ones from STAR WARS,
Power Rangers and Chicken Little.
It was fun waving to the "STARS" and seeing the cool decked out-cars.
We took lots of pics during this parade!!!

After the parade we rushed to the Indiana Jones stunt show which we had fast
passes for. We all enjoyed the show (even the girls) I think Hubby liked it
the best. (Action, explosions and daredevil stunts always go over good with guys)
We were ready for more thrill rides, so we got in line for TOT again while Hubby
got fast passes for Rockin Rollercoaster.
Our 2nd ride on TOT was scarier than our first one. I sat next to my neice,
who complained about how loud I was on the ride. We had more drops this time.

We were so excited to ride Rockin Rollercoaster again!!! We were almost ready
to go into the pre-show room with Aerosmith when an announcement was made that
the ride needed to be shut down. "NNNNOOOOOOOO WAAAYYY!!!"
We were told it could be closed for 10 minutes, or it could be closed for the
rest of the day.... we figured we could check back later without our fastpass.

Since we were so close to the TOT, we figured we could wait in line for it again.
(20 minute wait) DD decided she did NOT want to ride this a 3rd time, so she
took the chicken exit elevator while the rest of us boarded. The 3rd ride was
even scarier than the 2nd!!!!
At one point the elevator opened to the outide, where we noticed the sun was
going down. (Ahhh... how pretty, what a view!!)
It seemed like we sat there for a while, and then we dropped down for a
looonnngg time. Niece and Nephew had their hands in the air.... ARE THEY NUTS????
I was holding on to my bar for my life!!!!!! AUUGGHHHH!!!
This time I squeezed Hubby to death.
When it was over we exited and DD was waiting for us by the picture area,
laughing at how we looked on the ride. It was a hilarious picture.
I didn't buy any of the ride pictures, because they could be used for blackmail
someday if I get on anyone's bad side.

We walked over to the ampitheatre area a half hour before FANTASMIC started hoping
to get decent seats...there were a TON of people flocking to this area. We ended up
sitting in the JAFAR section to the far left side.
The far right section started several rounds of the "Wave" which was a fun thing to
do to pass the time. I love doing the "Wave".... wooooo hoooooo!!!!!!
The show was AWESOME! Loved the combination of Disney Music, cartoon clips, water
dances, live acting and fireworks. The kids loved when the characters floated by on
the decorated boats. It was a great ending to a super day.
When the show was over, there was a mad rush to get out of the park. We held hands
tightly so we wouldn't get lost in the sea of people.
After we took a picture of the huge mickey Sorcerer Hat lit up and surrounded by
spotlights we walked to the parking lot to find our car.
It seemed like there were alot of white cars in the lot.
We finally ended up finding the car and drove back to the hotel to crash.

 

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Day 4 ..... The Magic Kingdom!!!


We woke up early and ate breakfast at our hotel.
At 8:30 am, we drove to the Magic Kingdom's parking lot.
Sadly, We didn't get there early enough to make it to park opening because there were
already long lines for the monorail, which we thought would be the quickest way into
the Magic Kingom.
We made it to Main Street USA about 5 minutes after park opening, so we missed the
opening ceremony. I heard it was a pretty cool thing to see from another visitor,
and from the DIS boards.... oh well, maybe next time it will work out.

The view of the Castle was amazing! I loved the "Happiest Celebration on Earth"
golden designs on the caste. Even the Magic Mirror on the front of the castle was
cool. I liked how it changed to different castles of each of the Disney Parks
arround the world. (I later bought a Disney Pin that looks like the Magic Mirror with
Cinderellas Castle on it, cha ching!!) The golden Disney characters floating arround
the castle were cool too. We had fun trying to find as many as we could.

We were still early enough to get to Fantasy Land beyond the Castle. It didn't seem
very crowded. Our 1st Ride was Snow White's Scarey Adventures, which was adorable
Disney Fun (very small line)!!! We rode Cinderellas Carousel (was a walk on)
We were excited to see that the 3D PhilharMagic movie was a 5 minute wait, so we
did that next. It was such a cute movie!!! I loved how Mickey's Sorcerrer hat was
in all of the different Disney Movie clips and Donald Duck crashed them all.

After the movie we rode "It's a small world after all", it was cute, but nobody
wanted to ride it a 2nd time, even with it being a walk on. I guess we all had
enough of that song and the dancing dolls. By now, Fantasyland was starting to get
very busy. Peter Pan already had a 30 minute wait, which we decided was too long for
being so early so we ventured to the Left for FRONTIERLAND.
The Country Bear Jamboree was showing in 5 minutes and it was a CHRISTMAS VERSION of
the show! Hubby and I wanted to see it but the kids said "No Way". DD must have
remembered how "cheesy" it was when she saw the regular show last time. "But it's
a Christmas version!!!", nope, couldn't convince them, so we walked onward to
Big Thundar Mountain Railroad coaster.
This was one crazy train ride....VERY jerky but it made is wooop and laugh.
Next we did SPLASH mountain. It was early, but getting VERY HOT in the sun, so we
figured it wouldn't be so bad if we got wet already.

The wait was about 20 minutes, it went by pretty quickly.
We boarded our log boat and enjoyed the ride. The banjo music and critter singing
is hilarious. There are a few smaller hills throughout the ride. It has been along
time since I rode this, and the ride seemed to last a long time. Finally our log was
going up the final hill drop and we all screamed our way down. (We didn't get very wet)
After the hill we went into another cave to see the dancing chickens on the showboat
singing "Zippidy Doo Da, Zippidy eh!!!! My oh, my what a wonderful day!!!!"
We liked the ride so much, that we got a Fast Pass for later.

OK...now it was time to continue on to ADVENTURELAND!!!
Hubby couldn't wait to ride PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN,(POTC)his ulitmate Fave at the
MK. The kids made us promise we wouldn't shout out "George" during this ride,
because they wanted to enjoy the first ride without getting scared.
There was barely a line!!! We got right on! woo hoo!
"Drink up me hardies yo ho!!!! Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a Pirate's life for me!!!"
Of course at the end of the ride we are whisked into a Gift Shop with all of the cool
Pirate gear. I made another pin purchase of a POTC Skeleton holding a ship's wheel.
My pin laynard is getting pretty heavy.

We went on this ride 2 more times and on one of the times, Hubby shouted George's name
3 times in the fire scene but nothing weird happened. (Maybe because we were sharing
a boat with others???) George the ghost was probably at the Haunted Mansion that day.
The Haunted Mansion was sadly closed while we were there.

Our next ride in Adventureland was the JUNGLE CRUISE. We sat right by our cruise guide.
This ride was lots of fun. We imagined we were crusing down the Amazon river..... only
at DisneyWorld can you have so many adventures in 1 day!!

After the cruise, I made everyone get in line for the ENCHANTED TIKI ROOM.
Yes, this is also a "cheesy" attraction, but it has changed since I saw the original
show with my parents. The show was quick, but the birds got the Tiki gods upset and
finally we were told by the birds to LEAVE THE AUDITORIUM. We high tailed it. I think
everyone was happy it was a short show... oh well, it was cute and it was in the AC.

The Swiss Family Robinson Tree House looked pretty quiet, so we exlored the cool
treehouse. It was fun. After that we bought Dole Whip ice cream treats to cool down.

Wow, it was almost time for the Parade to start!
We walked back to Cindrellas Castle to find a good parade spot. We ended up sitting
right in front of the castle so we could stare at it for a while before the parade
started. While we were sitting there waiting, we made a strange observation.
It was HOT, we were starting to drip with sweat, and we notice a huge Christmas tree
is set up to the right of the Castle before Tomorrowland. We also hear "Rudolph the
Red Nose Reindeer" playing over the Park's soundsystem.
HOW CRAZY IS THAT??????
We always associate Christmas music and decorations with COLD and SNOW. It was
hilarious to be roasting in the sun listening to Christmas Music! I still remember
that moment and laugh.

The "Share a Dream Come True" parade was nice. The main characters of each float
were in bubbles so they looked like they were in a snowglobe. The parade seemed very
short. I definately liked the MGM Stars and Motorcars parade better. There were
moments when we felt like we were near the red carpet of a Holleywood event as there
were a few girls behind us who were shouting out the names of all the characters that
went by: "Belle! over here!!! SLEEPING BEAUTY!!!! MARY POPPINS!!! MINNIE!!! OVER HERE!"
too funny. My DD and niece didn't enjoy it too much as they were the ones with sore
ears afterwards.

After the parade, we swam through the sea of people to Tommorrowland. We got Fast
Passes for Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin then got in line for STITCH.
I have read the bad reviews of this "ride" and boy were they true.
It was gross and smelly!!! After the chili dog burp my hair even smelled like chili!!
The kids didn't like it either. Glad we did it so we won't have to waste our time on
it again.

Next, time to hop over to SPACE MOUNTAIN!! Everyone enjoyed this ride, it was fun
zooming in the dark, not knowing what to expect. But boy was this ride jerky! I'll
take Rockin Rollercoaster any day over Space Mountain. I was scared to put my
hands up because I thought I would hit something inside the ride building.
Well, the kids loved it so we got another fast pass for later.

Next it was Buzz time. This ride is fun and funny at the same time.
I stunk at hitting the ZURG targets, but somehow my score magically beat my nieces.
(I don't remember hitting anything) My DD beat nephew's score too. Her score was
almost unbeleivable high. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

After Buzz we ate dinner at a counterservice place in Tommorrowland.
I cheated and ate a kids meal because we were going to go on Space Mountain again
after dinner. (Didn't want to hurl)

After chowing we went over to space mountain and were told that the ride was going
to be shut down for a while. The kids were bummed, but Hubby and I were happy as far
as the hurl factor was concerned.
So....we waited in line to drive the stinky Indy Speedway cars.
I rode with my niece, who I discovered is a horrible driver. I am surprised she didn't
get yelled at by a Cast Member because she bumped Hubby and DD's car a few times.

Well, we survived the cars and we checked on Space Mountain to discover that it was
RUNNING AGAIN!!! Horraay more jerks and bumps!!!!

After Space we decided to walk to TOONTOWN so we could see Mickey and Minnie's houses.
It was now dark outside so we busted out some glow stick necklaces and strutted our
stuff. The kids for some weird reason wanted to ride Goofy's Barnstormer rollercoaster.
It is a very small kiddie coaster. Riding this after all of the other trill rides they
have been on???? I thought they were joking.... they wern't.
So we walk in the non-existant line and got on the coaster.
Hubby had an airplane car and I was laughing the whole time watching him on that ride.
This time the adults thought the ride was "cheesy" ha!!!!

They wanted to ride again, but we had to remind them that we had to see Mickey and
Minnie's houses before the fireworks started.
The houses were adorable. We took some pictures.

Wow! We still had 2 hours before fireworks!!!!
It was back to Fantasyland to try to get on the rest of the rides we missed earlier.
We rode the Mad Tea Party but Hubby had to sit out because he did not want to be spun
in a teacup fast or he would hurl.
So I was stuck sitting in an out of control teacup controlled by 3 crazy kids!!!!!
AUUUGGHHHHH!!!!! I was getting really dizzy... the room was spinning. I am hoping my
dinner doesn't come up. Well, I staggered off the ride and ended up surviving!

It was time for some lame rides. We tried to go on the Pooh ride but it was shut down!
Oh Well, we had to get in line for Peter Pan's Flight because they were out of fastpasses
for the night. It was a 40 minute wait. We would have been better off riding in the
morning... oh well.. ya live and learn.
Peter Pan was adorable. I sat with the girls in a flying ship and Hubby sat with
nephew. The girls liked it, Hubby and Nephew thought once was enough.

Since Fantasyland is now mobbed with people we walked on to Frontierland hoping for
a last ride on BIG THUNDAR MOUNTAIN AND SPLASH MOUNTAIN.
We were in luck! Both rides had less than 10 minute waits!
woooo hoooo!
Big Thundar was alot of fun to ride at night.
Splash Mountain was awesome! We had a whole log to ourselves.

After Splash, we still had enough time to do Pirates 1 more time before getting a spot
for fireworks. Pirates was a walk on and fun to do at night... it seemed spookier, but
still no George incidents.
After buying more things in the Pirate store it was time to head over towards the
Castle to get a spot for WISHES Fireworks.
We found nice open spot on the sidewalk in front of the castle.
It was now time to use a whole roll of film on the castle while it changed different
colors and mirror scenes. The family sitting in front of us turned arround and gave us
funny looks because our flashes on the cameras kept going off..... oh well, we are
tourists I guess, so it's OK if we look funny that way.
Wishes was one cool firework show that puts 4th of July displays to shame!
The fireworks were booming and the castle was
changing different colors and lovely Disney Music was playing with Jiminy Cricket talking
in the background. It was great!
But, it was also sad.... this was our last night we would be sitting enjoying a warm
evening and taking in all the magic of the World. Surprisingly my eyes remained dry
through the whole show.
DD was the first one to cry. When the show was over and we were holding hands trying
to make our way down Main Street to the exit she shed a few tears and said she was sad
to leave. I felt the same way she did, but luckily I kept my composure.

We left the Magic Kingdom by taking the ferry boat out. We stood by a window and sadly
watched the castle get farther and farther away......................





Summary:

All in All this was a fun time! We basically got to each park at opening and stayed
at least 11 hours each day. It was an adventure.
The only downside was that we felt exhausted when we got home.
We almost needed a vacation after "the vacation".
We were there during the beginning of "Jersey Week" and chatted with a few NJ families
who had school off that week. The only park that seemed really crowded was MGM, but
otherwise the wait times were not long and we managed to do alot each day.

Thanks for reading my Trip Report. Hope everyone leaving soon has a great vacation!
We can't wait to go back for more magical family fun and for more Disney Pins!
(ha ha, might need a new laynard)

 

[Deluzy]

Glad you had such a good time - thanks for sharing your trip report!

 

[Okiemom]

I love your reports. They are just the info I was looking for. Great details. I have one question. At Epcot, you went straight to Soarin and then over to Test Track. Soarin had 20 minute wait, and TT had 40. Why so long at the first of the day? We are going over Thanksgiving weekend, so I will hate to see the lines then.

 

[BlueBayou]

Thanks for your trip report. It sounds like your family had a blast.

 

[alite]

Great report. I was there in Sept. and everytime you said no lines, it reminded me why I will never go in the summer again. I have one question though, what is this George thing in POTC? This is a Disney tidbit I haven't heard of

 

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Okiemom: I am not sure why there were lines already at park opening.
I think everybody else had the same idea as us becuase it seemed like everyone was zooming to the right to hit Soarin right away.

Alite: I read about George the Ghost on other DIS threads, including the Share your Best WDW Secrets thread. Supposedly, George was a person who worked on building POTC and died in the process. Now it is said he haunts the ride. The CMs need to say good morning and good night to George each day or the ride will have problems. I have read on other DIS member posts that some people had weird things happen to them when they shouted George's name during the fire scene of the ride.

 

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My daughter just posted her version of this trip. bumping this up if you want to read the "grown up" version

 

[heaven2dc]

Really loved your detailed report - and no abbreviations!! Now I know exactly which rides you went on I have a problem reading alot of these reports because I keep having to refer to my cheat sheet (I'm weird like that )

Will move on now to read your daughter's report - glad you had a great time! You seem to be the family I would adopt to go with on a WDW trip