Trying to post this again; been having trouble doing so.
EDIT: It finally worked!
8.23.05 Epcot
Got into the park around 1:30, and the first thing we did (other than take pictures) was get a FP for Soarin'. Stand-by line was around 40-50 minutes, I don't remember for sure. But it certainly was a lot shorter than the reported 3 hour waits during the peak seasons. After getting our FP, we walked to Mexico to get some lunch. We then walked from country to country, checking out what they had to offer, and taking pictures along the way. While everything was cool and interesting to look at, there didn't appear to be much to actually do. Perhaps it was the heat getting to us, but it kind of felt like once you see it, you really don't need to go back again. But hey, maybe that's just us. After checking out every country, we realized we had missed our FP return time, but that also meant we could get another one. So, we headed over to Test Track and got a FP to that, and went back to Soarin' to see if we could use our "expired" one. Thankfully, they had no problem with it, and they let us on. We loved this ride. Even though it felt short, it felt fairly realistic. I really got a rush when we would fly close to the ground/water, and would feel like my feet was about to hit. We killed a little bit of time until it was time to return for Test Track. The beginning of that ride is kind of dull, but the speed test at the end was great. I wanted to badly to try out Mission Space, but after reading the threads here about being dizzy and nauseous for awhile after getting of the ride, I turned into a chicken. This normally wouldn't bother me, but I had the stomach flu for the first time 3 weeks ago, and I was too scared to have that sort of feeling again. Next we watched Honey I Shrunk the Audience, and while it's okay, it really makes me miss Captain EO (which I've seen a bunch of times at Disneyland, not sure if they ever had it at WDW). We finally decided to head over to Rose & Crown for dinner, and we watched Illuminations from the patio. I thought the show was great, and it was my girlfriend's favorite night time show of the trip.
8.24.05 Disney MGM Studios
Went straight to ToT at 9am, but they were running some tests, and weren't sure when it was going to open, so we went over to Rock n Rollercoaster. We thought this ride was good, and better than Space Mountain. I think its because this ride has loops. When we got off this ride, we tried ToT again, and it had just recently opened, so we were able to walk on after a 5 minute wait. Not as many drops as I would've hoped, but still fun. After a good amount of picture taking, we rushed over to Millionaire Play It to catch the first show. I think I answered the Fastest Finger first, but unfortunately I had the wrong answer! The guy that made it to the Hot Seat got up to the 16,000 point question, and got it wrong. After his first landmark, I was 3rd on the leaderboard for next on the hot seat. After he lost, they showed the leaderboard, and I was so happy to see that I wasn't on the board for places 2-10, because that meant I was the highest rank, and next in the Hot Seat! I'm so disappointed in myself though, because I did not get nearly as high as I should have. I had to use my first life line on the 4th question, and it was such a simple one. Which of the following do you wear on your feet? A) Trunks B) Speedos C) Bikini D) Thongs. I thought to myself, well, there are Speedos brand sandals, but I'll poll the audience. As soon as I saw that it was 90% D) Thongs, it hit me. Duh! Thongs=flip flops! I was thinking thongs=underwear. What a waste. I lost on the 32,000 question, asking the director of Blade Runner. After using the 50/50, it was down to James Cameron and Ridley Scott. I guess wrong with Cameron, and went home with the 5 pins, lanyard, and hat. I was so mad/disappointed when I lost the lanyard though
and the worst part about it was that I lost it within 10 minutes of winning it. I know I took it out to look at it, then we went to get a FP for Lights, Motor, Action, and then we had lunch at Sci-Fi. I was going to put the pins on the lanyard at Sci-Fi, but I couldn't find it. Anyway, after lunch we watched Lights, Motor, Action. It was a terrific show, and it actually sprinkled a little bit during the show, but the kept on going. When that was over, we took more pictures, then went on Star Tours. That AT-AT Walker in the front of Star Tours is so cool! They don't have that one in California. When we got off the ride, we looked outside and it was pouring. It rained for a good 30 minutes until it finally calmed to a sprinkle, and we finally got out of Tatooine Traders. We walked around for a bit, then got some pictures with characters when they finally came back out. After that, we just took pictures of the scenery, and eventually claimed our spot for the Disney Stars and Motor Cars parade. Parade was pretty cool, and we got tons of pictures. After that was dinner at 50s Prime Time. We finished at 7:20, and headed for the Fantasmic arena, which was quite full by the time we got there. Thankfully, since there was only 2 of us, we were able to find a spot almost dead center, maybe 13-15 rows up. They were great seats for what turned out to be my favorite night time show of our trip.
8.25.05 Magic Kingdom
Started the day off with breakfast at Crystal Palace. We finished breakfast and got into the park at 9:10. The first land we hit was Tomorrowland. On the way to Space Mountain, we got some pictures with Buzz and Stitch. Unfortunately the CM we asked to take our picture wasn't too experienced with cameras, since our pictures came out blurry, even after I explained how to use it. After pictures we got to Space Mountain, and the stand-by time was between 5-10 minutes. After the ride, we tried out Stitch's Great Escape, since they were just letting people in. Ugh, what a waste of time that was. Next we went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, and we absolutely loved it. Shooting the targets for points and competing against my girlfriend for bragging rights was a blast! Next, we went to the front of the castle to try and catch Cinderellabraton. But as soon as the fairy godmother came out from behind the curtain, it started to rain and the show was cancelled. We took cover for about 15 minutes, and went to Fantasyland when the rain stopped. First thing we saw in Fantasyland was Philharmagic. What a great 3D show, my favorite of the 3 that we saw (Honey I Shrunk... and Muppets 3D). It wasn't as good as Captain EO, but well, they don't have that anymore. Then, it was the dreaded, yet mandatory ride on It's a Small World. This ride doesn't seem like such a big deal at WDW. It's off to the side in Fantasyland, and all indoors. At Disneyland, it's in the very back of the park, with the big castle display and ride entrance outside. From what I can remember though, the actual ride is pretty much the same. Then we went to the Haunted Mansion, which I've always found more funny than scary. Afterwards, we took care of Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. 15 minute stand-by for Thunder, and FP for Splash. What was so funny about our ride on Splash was that before we got in line, it began raining. After 5 minutes, the sky somewhat cleared up, and it was a light drizzle if anything. So we get in line, ask the CM for a seat where we are least likely to get wet, and as soon as the ride begins, it started pouring rain. We were drenched by the end of the ride. And the worst part was, as soon as the ride ended, it stopped raining again! Well, that was enough for the afternoon, so we went back to our room to change, rest, and recharge the camera. We went to Downtown Disney around 5, since my girlfriend wanted to check out World of Disney. Man that store is big. That's the only place we shopped, but we stopped by a few other stores. Goofy's Candy Co. is one of the coolest stores I've seen. Around 7:45-8, we decided to make our way back to MK to catch Wishes. While waiting for the bus, one of the coolest things happened. We walked by a family, and after we passed them, I heard the little boy say to his parents "Hey! It's the guy from Millionaire!" And the dad even remembered my name. I turned, smiled, and said hello to them, and the son was so excited. I just thought it was so funny that a complete stranger was so enthusiastic about bumping into me. Anyway, we took the bus over to Contemporary, then rode the monorail to MK. Got there at 8:50 and got a pretty good view of Wishes on Main Street. It was a good show, but I thought Illuminations and Fantasmic were better.
8.26.05 Magic Kingdom (again)
Went back here at 8am for the EMH morning. Only Fantasyland and Tomorrowland were open, but we got to go on Pooh's ride, Peter Pan, and Snow White with no wait at all. More importantly, we were able to get a lot of pictures around those 2 lands and the castle with not many people around. No having to worry about people stepping in front of the camera, or a lot of extra people in the background. At 8:55 we went to the entrance of Adventureland, and went straight to Pirates when they removed the ropes. Most people made their way to Frontierland, so we were able to get on the first boat of Pirates. Unfortunately, Jungle Cruise didn't open until 10, and we never got a chance to ride it. Got on Aladdin's carpet ride afterwards, took a few more pictures, then went to the castle for the first showing of Cinderellabration. Caught the show, took tons of pictures, then headed straight for Toon Town just in time for its opening at 10. This place was very important to my girlfriend because she wanted a lot of character pictures. All the kids and parents were distracted by other stuff on the way to Mickey's Tent, so we were in the first group of people that got in to see Mickey. After Mickey, we went to the next tent over (I forgot it's name), and got pictures with Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Minnie, Goofy, Princess Aurora, Cinderella, and Snow White. I got a solo picture with Minnie with me kissing her. Afterwards, a CM came up to me and said "Sir, we're going to have to take down your name." I was thinking to myself, why? What's wrong? What did I do? Then she said they had to report me to Mickey because I kissed Minnie. What a relief! I really thought I was in trouble. I played along with them, and we all had a good laugh. After all these pictures, it was almost noon, so we had lunch at Cosmic Ray's, took a few more pictures, then headed back to the room to rest, and recharge the camera. Around 4:00, we headed back to the park, took some pictures with the characters on Main Street, then walked around for a bit. At 5:00 we made our way to the boat launch to get to the Polynesian for dinner. Rain and wind delayed us for almost a half hour. After dinner at 'Ohana, we took the monorail back to MK, arrived at 8, and claimed our spot for Spectromagic. Wow, some people and their kids are so inconsiderate. They tried squeezing in front of us, even though there was no room, they kept bumping into us, with no excuse me. One kid rubbed his Itzakadoozie all over my girlfriend's arm. The mom said sorry, but she didn't really make an effort to stop her kid from doing it AGAIN. Fortunately, things calmed down as soon as the parade began. Too bad the parade didn't live up to my expectations. I figured since it wasn't an everyday thing, it was going to be spectacular. I find the Main Street Electrical Parade from Disneyland years ago to be better. Anyways, after the parade we hung around for Wishes again. I don't know if people didn't know about Wishes, or they didn't care to watch it, but A LOT of people left after the parade, leaving Main Street pretty spacious for Wishes. This viewing of Wishes was better than the previous night, mainly because Tinkerbell came down. I know it was only a brief part of the show, but it did make it seem more magical. Again, I enjoyed Illuminations and Fantasmic more, but Wishes is still a great show. After hearing the description of the fireworks show at Disneyland from my brother, I think I'd like the Disneyland show better.
8.27.05 Disney MGM Studios
Last day. Sigh. After packing up and checking out, we headed for the park. Arrived at the park around 11:30. We originally planned to come back to Epcot on our last day, but we had so much fun at MGM that we changed our plans. Our main objective was to get more character pictures. We got Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and Army Man at Al's Toy Barn. We saw the Power Rangers on the way to Mickey Avenue, but to me, they just don't seem Disney, so we didn't really make an effort to get pictures with them. Upon arrival to Mickey Avenue, we were pleasantly surprised to see such a short line for Sorceror Mickey. We waited less than 5 minutes to get pictures with him. After a quick picture with JoJo and Goliath, we decided to watch Millionaire again, and with good timing. It began to rain as soon as we got indoors. We were one of the first 10 there, so we got to sit in the Fastest Finger seats. Unfortunately, since I had won something a few days prior, I didn't want to play again. It would have sucked to be chosen for the Hot Seat, and having to tell them "sorry, I'm not allowed to play." There was only time for one contestant this time: a 13 year old boy from Long Island. He did very well, eventually missing the 64,000 point question. After the show, more walking and more pictures. We found Pluto and got some pictures with him. Then we watched Beauty and the Beast. Show was okay, but it was so hot in the theater. Even though it began raining during the show, it was still very hot. After the show, we decided to eat lunch. Then, to take a break from the heat, we watched Muppets 3D. It was approaching the time we had to get back to the resort for our DME pick up, so we headed towards the big sorceror hat and saw Lilo and Stitch. We got pictures with them, then finally headed out. But not before getting our last few PhotoPass pictures taken. We exited the gates of MGM Studios, and got onto our bus. DME eventually picked us up at the resort at around 5pm. On the way to the airport, we passed the entrance gate to Disney World, and we knew our vacation was over.
EDIT: It finally worked!
8.23.05 Epcot
Got into the park around 1:30, and the first thing we did (other than take pictures) was get a FP for Soarin'. Stand-by line was around 40-50 minutes, I don't remember for sure. But it certainly was a lot shorter than the reported 3 hour waits during the peak seasons. After getting our FP, we walked to Mexico to get some lunch. We then walked from country to country, checking out what they had to offer, and taking pictures along the way. While everything was cool and interesting to look at, there didn't appear to be much to actually do. Perhaps it was the heat getting to us, but it kind of felt like once you see it, you really don't need to go back again. But hey, maybe that's just us. After checking out every country, we realized we had missed our FP return time, but that also meant we could get another one. So, we headed over to Test Track and got a FP to that, and went back to Soarin' to see if we could use our "expired" one. Thankfully, they had no problem with it, and they let us on. We loved this ride. Even though it felt short, it felt fairly realistic. I really got a rush when we would fly close to the ground/water, and would feel like my feet was about to hit. We killed a little bit of time until it was time to return for Test Track. The beginning of that ride is kind of dull, but the speed test at the end was great. I wanted to badly to try out Mission Space, but after reading the threads here about being dizzy and nauseous for awhile after getting of the ride, I turned into a chicken. This normally wouldn't bother me, but I had the stomach flu for the first time 3 weeks ago, and I was too scared to have that sort of feeling again. Next we watched Honey I Shrunk the Audience, and while it's okay, it really makes me miss Captain EO (which I've seen a bunch of times at Disneyland, not sure if they ever had it at WDW). We finally decided to head over to Rose & Crown for dinner, and we watched Illuminations from the patio. I thought the show was great, and it was my girlfriend's favorite night time show of the trip.
8.24.05 Disney MGM Studios
Went straight to ToT at 9am, but they were running some tests, and weren't sure when it was going to open, so we went over to Rock n Rollercoaster. We thought this ride was good, and better than Space Mountain. I think its because this ride has loops. When we got off this ride, we tried ToT again, and it had just recently opened, so we were able to walk on after a 5 minute wait. Not as many drops as I would've hoped, but still fun. After a good amount of picture taking, we rushed over to Millionaire Play It to catch the first show. I think I answered the Fastest Finger first, but unfortunately I had the wrong answer! The guy that made it to the Hot Seat got up to the 16,000 point question, and got it wrong. After his first landmark, I was 3rd on the leaderboard for next on the hot seat. After he lost, they showed the leaderboard, and I was so happy to see that I wasn't on the board for places 2-10, because that meant I was the highest rank, and next in the Hot Seat! I'm so disappointed in myself though, because I did not get nearly as high as I should have. I had to use my first life line on the 4th question, and it was such a simple one. Which of the following do you wear on your feet? A) Trunks B) Speedos C) Bikini D) Thongs. I thought to myself, well, there are Speedos brand sandals, but I'll poll the audience. As soon as I saw that it was 90% D) Thongs, it hit me. Duh! Thongs=flip flops! I was thinking thongs=underwear. What a waste. I lost on the 32,000 question, asking the director of Blade Runner. After using the 50/50, it was down to James Cameron and Ridley Scott. I guess wrong with Cameron, and went home with the 5 pins, lanyard, and hat. I was so mad/disappointed when I lost the lanyard though
and the worst part about it was that I lost it within 10 minutes of winning it. I know I took it out to look at it, then we went to get a FP for Lights, Motor, Action, and then we had lunch at Sci-Fi. I was going to put the pins on the lanyard at Sci-Fi, but I couldn't find it. Anyway, after lunch we watched Lights, Motor, Action. It was a terrific show, and it actually sprinkled a little bit during the show, but the kept on going. When that was over, we took more pictures, then went on Star Tours. That AT-AT Walker in the front of Star Tours is so cool! They don't have that one in California. When we got off the ride, we looked outside and it was pouring. It rained for a good 30 minutes until it finally calmed to a sprinkle, and we finally got out of Tatooine Traders. We walked around for a bit, then got some pictures with characters when they finally came back out. After that, we just took pictures of the scenery, and eventually claimed our spot for the Disney Stars and Motor Cars parade. Parade was pretty cool, and we got tons of pictures. After that was dinner at 50s Prime Time. We finished at 7:20, and headed for the Fantasmic arena, which was quite full by the time we got there. Thankfully, since there was only 2 of us, we were able to find a spot almost dead center, maybe 13-15 rows up. They were great seats for what turned out to be my favorite night time show of our trip.8.25.05 Magic Kingdom
Started the day off with breakfast at Crystal Palace. We finished breakfast and got into the park at 9:10. The first land we hit was Tomorrowland. On the way to Space Mountain, we got some pictures with Buzz and Stitch. Unfortunately the CM we asked to take our picture wasn't too experienced with cameras, since our pictures came out blurry, even after I explained how to use it. After pictures we got to Space Mountain, and the stand-by time was between 5-10 minutes. After the ride, we tried out Stitch's Great Escape, since they were just letting people in. Ugh, what a waste of time that was. Next we went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, and we absolutely loved it. Shooting the targets for points and competing against my girlfriend for bragging rights was a blast! Next, we went to the front of the castle to try and catch Cinderellabraton. But as soon as the fairy godmother came out from behind the curtain, it started to rain and the show was cancelled. We took cover for about 15 minutes, and went to Fantasyland when the rain stopped. First thing we saw in Fantasyland was Philharmagic. What a great 3D show, my favorite of the 3 that we saw (Honey I Shrunk... and Muppets 3D). It wasn't as good as Captain EO, but well, they don't have that anymore. Then, it was the dreaded, yet mandatory ride on It's a Small World. This ride doesn't seem like such a big deal at WDW. It's off to the side in Fantasyland, and all indoors. At Disneyland, it's in the very back of the park, with the big castle display and ride entrance outside. From what I can remember though, the actual ride is pretty much the same. Then we went to the Haunted Mansion, which I've always found more funny than scary. Afterwards, we took care of Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. 15 minute stand-by for Thunder, and FP for Splash. What was so funny about our ride on Splash was that before we got in line, it began raining. After 5 minutes, the sky somewhat cleared up, and it was a light drizzle if anything. So we get in line, ask the CM for a seat where we are least likely to get wet, and as soon as the ride begins, it started pouring rain. We were drenched by the end of the ride. And the worst part was, as soon as the ride ended, it stopped raining again! Well, that was enough for the afternoon, so we went back to our room to change, rest, and recharge the camera. We went to Downtown Disney around 5, since my girlfriend wanted to check out World of Disney. Man that store is big. That's the only place we shopped, but we stopped by a few other stores. Goofy's Candy Co. is one of the coolest stores I've seen. Around 7:45-8, we decided to make our way back to MK to catch Wishes. While waiting for the bus, one of the coolest things happened. We walked by a family, and after we passed them, I heard the little boy say to his parents "Hey! It's the guy from Millionaire!" And the dad even remembered my name. I turned, smiled, and said hello to them, and the son was so excited. I just thought it was so funny that a complete stranger was so enthusiastic about bumping into me. Anyway, we took the bus over to Contemporary, then rode the monorail to MK. Got there at 8:50 and got a pretty good view of Wishes on Main Street. It was a good show, but I thought Illuminations and Fantasmic were better.
8.26.05 Magic Kingdom (again)
Went back here at 8am for the EMH morning. Only Fantasyland and Tomorrowland were open, but we got to go on Pooh's ride, Peter Pan, and Snow White with no wait at all. More importantly, we were able to get a lot of pictures around those 2 lands and the castle with not many people around. No having to worry about people stepping in front of the camera, or a lot of extra people in the background. At 8:55 we went to the entrance of Adventureland, and went straight to Pirates when they removed the ropes. Most people made their way to Frontierland, so we were able to get on the first boat of Pirates. Unfortunately, Jungle Cruise didn't open until 10, and we never got a chance to ride it. Got on Aladdin's carpet ride afterwards, took a few more pictures, then went to the castle for the first showing of Cinderellabration. Caught the show, took tons of pictures, then headed straight for Toon Town just in time for its opening at 10. This place was very important to my girlfriend because she wanted a lot of character pictures. All the kids and parents were distracted by other stuff on the way to Mickey's Tent, so we were in the first group of people that got in to see Mickey. After Mickey, we went to the next tent over (I forgot it's name), and got pictures with Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Minnie, Goofy, Princess Aurora, Cinderella, and Snow White. I got a solo picture with Minnie with me kissing her. Afterwards, a CM came up to me and said "Sir, we're going to have to take down your name." I was thinking to myself, why? What's wrong? What did I do? Then she said they had to report me to Mickey because I kissed Minnie. What a relief! I really thought I was in trouble. I played along with them, and we all had a good laugh. After all these pictures, it was almost noon, so we had lunch at Cosmic Ray's, took a few more pictures, then headed back to the room to rest, and recharge the camera. Around 4:00, we headed back to the park, took some pictures with the characters on Main Street, then walked around for a bit. At 5:00 we made our way to the boat launch to get to the Polynesian for dinner. Rain and wind delayed us for almost a half hour. After dinner at 'Ohana, we took the monorail back to MK, arrived at 8, and claimed our spot for Spectromagic. Wow, some people and their kids are so inconsiderate. They tried squeezing in front of us, even though there was no room, they kept bumping into us, with no excuse me. One kid rubbed his Itzakadoozie all over my girlfriend's arm. The mom said sorry, but she didn't really make an effort to stop her kid from doing it AGAIN. Fortunately, things calmed down as soon as the parade began. Too bad the parade didn't live up to my expectations. I figured since it wasn't an everyday thing, it was going to be spectacular. I find the Main Street Electrical Parade from Disneyland years ago to be better. Anyways, after the parade we hung around for Wishes again. I don't know if people didn't know about Wishes, or they didn't care to watch it, but A LOT of people left after the parade, leaving Main Street pretty spacious for Wishes. This viewing of Wishes was better than the previous night, mainly because Tinkerbell came down. I know it was only a brief part of the show, but it did make it seem more magical. Again, I enjoyed Illuminations and Fantasmic more, but Wishes is still a great show. After hearing the description of the fireworks show at Disneyland from my brother, I think I'd like the Disneyland show better.
8.27.05 Disney MGM Studios
Last day. Sigh. After packing up and checking out, we headed for the park. Arrived at the park around 11:30. We originally planned to come back to Epcot on our last day, but we had so much fun at MGM that we changed our plans. Our main objective was to get more character pictures. We got Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and Army Man at Al's Toy Barn. We saw the Power Rangers on the way to Mickey Avenue, but to me, they just don't seem Disney, so we didn't really make an effort to get pictures with them. Upon arrival to Mickey Avenue, we were pleasantly surprised to see such a short line for Sorceror Mickey. We waited less than 5 minutes to get pictures with him. After a quick picture with JoJo and Goliath, we decided to watch Millionaire again, and with good timing. It began to rain as soon as we got indoors. We were one of the first 10 there, so we got to sit in the Fastest Finger seats. Unfortunately, since I had won something a few days prior, I didn't want to play again. It would have sucked to be chosen for the Hot Seat, and having to tell them "sorry, I'm not allowed to play." There was only time for one contestant this time: a 13 year old boy from Long Island. He did very well, eventually missing the 64,000 point question. After the show, more walking and more pictures. We found Pluto and got some pictures with him. Then we watched Beauty and the Beast. Show was okay, but it was so hot in the theater. Even though it began raining during the show, it was still very hot. After the show, we decided to eat lunch. Then, to take a break from the heat, we watched Muppets 3D. It was approaching the time we had to get back to the resort for our DME pick up, so we headed towards the big sorceror hat and saw Lilo and Stitch. We got pictures with them, then finally headed out. But not before getting our last few PhotoPass pictures taken. We exited the gates of MGM Studios, and got onto our bus. DME eventually picked us up at the resort at around 5pm. On the way to the airport, we passed the entrance gate to Disney World, and we knew our vacation was over.
