Our Trip Report

NorthernON_MOM

DIS Lover
Joined
Jan 27, 2004
Messages
128
Our trip to Walt Disney World

We left here on Thurs. March 18 @ 6:00 am. It was -22 degrees celcius outside. We had a good flight to Toronto and a great flight to Orlando (we even had a pretty good meal onboard). When we arrived in Orlando at just aft 1:00pm it was sunny and 85 degrees farenheit. Everything went smoothly and our Tiffiny Towncar was waiting for us as planned. I definitely would recommend them to anyone, made things so simple for us and we included a grocery stop. We bought: bread, cereal, cereal bars, juice boxes, pb and j, chips, 2 cases of water and some fruit cups. Our bill was $44.07 US and that was enough for breakfast for 4 people for 7 days. We were very pleased. We figure we saved at least $150.

We arrived at our hotel, checked in and were in our rooms before 2:30pm. We went for a swim in our bowling pin pool. Had a quick dinner from the Pop Century cafeteria and then crashed for the night. We were in the 50’s area in room 2462 in Building B. A note, you can see the fireworks at both Magic Kingdom and Epcot every night from the balcony of our building (the sides that face away from the pool). We watched them every night that we were at the hotel at that time.

On our first full day there we got a 6:33 am wake up call from Mickey (we had been told to ask for an off time wake up to get Mickey to call, but found that he called every morning regardless of the time). Today was Early Entry Day at Animal Kingdom (the only early entry we took advantage of). We started out on Kilimanjaro Safaris which we all loved and only had a really short wait to get on to it. We saw a lot of different things in the AK including Kali River Rapids, Tarzan Rocks (our favourite show) and It’s Tough to be a bug. There were others too, but those would be our faves of the day. We went to Downtown Disney at night to do some shopping and have dinner.

Day 2 we went to Blizzard Beach in the morning. We had a lot of fun there especially on Teamboat Springs (family raft ride, we went on it twice). The ski patrol training camp is especially great for kids in our boys age group (5 and 7 turned 8). We also took advantage of our free mini golf at wintersummerland while we were there. My advice. Rent a locker and put everything in it, including towels and sandals (unless you wear water shoes). BTW, when we handed in our key we got the choice of either $2 back or a free Blizzard Beach mug just like the ones at the resorts. And while I remember it, we found out on the second last day that at Pop Century you can use any kind of refillable mug from around Disney there. In the afternoon and evening we went to Epcot to wander around World Showcase and to watch Illuminations which was really beautiful. Dh also went on Mission Space while we were there. It was his favourite ride of the trip.

Day 3 we went to MGM studios in the morning. We watched the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular which was quite spectacular. Muppet Vision 3D was really good too. This was our least favourite park and we did do a few other things here like Star Tours etc. but nothing that great. We headed over to Trails End Buffet for dinner, and enjoyed the lesurely boat ride to get there. The buffet was pretty good, nothing fabulous, but a good price for a buffet. We ended the evening but heading to the Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks which were so beautiful.

Day 4 we decided to take the morning easy and spent it swimming at the flower power pool at Pop Century. Then in the afternoon we headed over to Magic Kingdom for what is supposed to be the least busy day (Monday) and it was insane, but far the busiest day of our trip. We went on the Railroad, Goofy’s Barnstormer, Big Thunder Mountain, Buzz Lightyear (our boys favourite) and Tomorrowland Transit Authority (a close second with them), among others. We didn’t get to do too much though as I said it was crazy busy. Today the boys discovered the arcade at POP as well and played there for a bit.

Day 5 we went to Epcot in the morning and headed straight for Test Track, it was about a 10 min. wait and was a fantastic ride (my favourite). We also really enjoyed living with the land (it is so cool to see the way they are growing the plants). Innoventions East and West were pretty good. We also saw Honey I shrunk the Audience and a few other things. We spend a little time in World Showcase again as my oldest wanted to take some pictures for school. We headed over to MGM for fantasmic in the evening. It was a pretty good show too.

Day 6 was our oldest boys 8th birthday. I had made a t-shirt for him that said “today is my birthday” and pictures of Mickey holding a “Happy Birthday” sign on it. I would definitely recommend doing this for a birthday as he as treated so well (from the secruity guard at the front gate announcing “Can I have everyone’s attention, My friend Matthew from Canada is having his birthday today, he is turning 8 years old, can everyone please give him a round of applause” to the Jungle boat driving having our boat sing Happy Birthday to him, to getting free pins at both MK and AK that said todayis my birthday (you can get them at Guest services at any of the parks). It was a really good day, at lot less busy than our first MK day and we were able to see Mickey’s Philharmagic which was really good and the show at Cinderalla’s castle. We ended the day by heading over to AK to see the parade and have dinner at the Rainforest Café. We shared a volcano for desert and it was yummy.

Day 7 was our day to leave. We were up at 4:00 am and left the hotel by 5:30am. In a way it was better that day, you leave in the dark and it’s too early to be worrying about what you are missing. We had good flights home and finally got here at about 7 at night.


All in all we had a fabulous trip. It was in the 80’s for the first 5 days and then dropped to the mid 70’s for our last 2 days but the weather was beautiful sunshine with only a few clouds here and there, not a drop of rain. We all really enjoyed out trip and would recommend it to anyone. I would recommend though waiting till our children are old enough to walk around by themselves without complaining (about 5) we saw so many crying, tired children who were younger and I just don’t think it’s worth it. Now we are trying to decide if we want to go back for our 10th anniversary in November. If we do we’ll do the 3 day land/4 day sea. Well, that was my report. If you have any questions about our trip or the resort feel free to ask.
 
Welcome back ! Sounds like you had a fantastic trip, and that you ensured that you had some down-time in a fun-filled week!

You do know that you're "hooked" now ... and that you are truly "one of us" :p Welcome to the "I want to go back" club!

Mary Liz
 
Wow! You sure piled a lot of fun into a short week. We've been so often that now we try and do something we haven't done before everyday.

Now you have to start planning for the next time. Hopefully, now you're an addict and can relate to all of us other addicts that hang out here on the boards.

My DS is also 8 and he loves the Wedway People Mover (TTC to the new people). He tells me it will always be the Wedway People Mover to him as it will always be Dixie to me.

Have a great weekend!!
 
Great trip report, NorthernON_MOM! I didn't realize that you could see the fireworks from POP. I'll have to try that next time.

A couple of times, Dh and I went over to the GF to watch Wishes from the dock, which was quite enjoyable and then we'd go over to the Poly for a drink and dessert in the lounge. We also caught the Electric Water Pageant, while over there.

I set my Mickey wake-up call for either 7 or 8 o'clock and he called right on time every morning. One morning, we had an early call from the parents of Dan's best friend who were also staying at POP (I had left them a voicemail message the day before, to "touch base") and we talked right through my wake-up call. A little while later there was knock at our door and it was a CM following up because Mickey couldn't get through! I thought that was great service!!
 

Great report NorthernON_MOM...glad to hear you had a good time...and good weather too!
 
Great trip report.

A couple of questions, you said you took a boat ride to trails end for a buffet, where did you do this from and did you make reservations for the dinner buffet or just show up? We are thinking of going there.

The meal at the rainforest at ak park, did you reserve or can you walk in.

Just curious how early can one get into ak park on early entry day.

Thanks,

Deb.

(p.s. Hubby and I love northern ontario)
 
The boat to the Trails End buffet we got just outside the Magic Kingdom gates. There is a boat that goes to the Wilderness Lodge and then the Fort Wilderness Campgrounds. You take it. We didn't make reservations and we waited about 20 minutes to get in around 6:00.

For the Rainforet Cafe at AK we did make Priority seating for 4:30 and basically got in as soon as we arrived. Also, you get into AK at 8am on an early entry day. You will want to leave your resort by around 7:15 if you want to be at the gates before it opens, we we got there about 8:10.
 
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Nice report, next time you are at the AK you might try Boma's at AKL. It is a fantastic buffet and then tour around the lodge.A little pricier than RFC but worth it .
 














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