Our WONDERful Jan 28th cruise & WDW trip (FINISHED)

[stampinshauna]

Friday, February 2

I woke up around 4:30am to the sound of thunder. I was not expecting to hear thunder because I don't think I ever have heard it in Florida. I've heard rain and I've heard the pouring rain, but never thunder. I wondered what would happen with our Segway tour that we had scheduled for 8:30 in EPCOT. I went back to sleep for a couple hours and then DH and I woke up around 7:00. We called to find out if our tour was cancelled due to the weather and were told that the tour office wasn't open until 8:00. Since we would only have a few minutes to get ready if the tour was still on once we found out, we got up and ready for the day anyway. We were ready to leave the room around 8:00am so we called and were told that the first part of the tour was inside so they would definately be holding that part and if they had to cancel the second part we would receive a partial refund. Since it was so early, the ferry boat was not running, so we walked to the International Gateway entrance--which was not a bad walk at all. At the turnstyle, the CM checked his list to make sure we were supposed to be there since EPCOT was not yet open to the public. We entered the park and went to Guest Services to check in for our tour. Once the whole group was checked in (there were about 14 of us) we went over to Innoventions West to begin our fun. We first went into a round room and were briefed about Segways and got our helmets. We then went just outside the room to where the Segways were set up against the wall. We got on and practiced going forward and turning. Once we had the hang of it, we were split into two groups and did little courses. Once course was going up a ramp and down a ramp. The other course was weaving around cones and speeding up. Afterwards, we were ready to go to the World Showcase.

Luckily, the weather cooperated and we were able to do the full tour. We started out on the left side of the World Showcase and worked our way around. We stopped at each country and learned a little bit about the buildings, customs, etc. At each stop, we remained on the segways. I love how you can just stay still on them and not have to get on and off. Some of the countries had pathways that we went up and around on and it was fun to manuver our way around. The best part was that the World Showcase wasn't open to the public yet, so we didn't have to manuver around people. We did take a little break from the formal tour near the American Adventure so that we could drive around an area a little on our own and have a photo stop. We got some fun pictures of us on the segways just in front of the water with Spaceship Earth off in the distance. As we finished up the tour and headed out of the World Showcase, we had to be more cautious as there were guests around us. We got all sorts of looks from the guests and many were saying that they wanted a turn or how cool it was. We returned to Innoventions and returned the segways. DH didn't want to give his up, he got spoiled going around a park on the segway instead of having to walk. Once we got off the segways, I found it a little hard to walk normal. When riding the segway, your heels are a little lower than your toes, which strains your calf muscles a little. I was a little sore, but not sore enough to let it slow me down in the parks for the day.

We decided since we were so close that we'd go check out the new Seas with Nemo and Friends attraction and take a ride on Soarin'. We've been to DL many times, so we've tried Soarin' there, but we wanted to visit the FL counterpart. I was suprised how crowded it was, but I guess there are a lot of WDW goers who haven't been on it a lot in DL, so they all felt it was worth waiting for. We picked up a fastpass and then went on the Nemo ride. Nemo was cute, and it gets me excited to see what they do with the new Nemo subs at DL that debut this summer. I've read that they use the same technology. We still had a little time before our fastpass for Soarin', so we went on Living with the Land (I still miss the Listen to the Land song that they played there in the 80s). We also had some lunch at Sunshine Seasons--we split a CS meal of a Turkey & Muenster on Foccatia sandwich, chocolate milk, and YUMMY chocolate cake. We finished up our lunch and then went to ride Soarin'. The line was long so I was sure glad that we had fastpasses. The ride was the same as in California, which is what I suspected, but we had to try it anyway. After Soarin', we headed back to the International Gateway and caught a ferry to MGM.

 

[stampinshauna]

The ferry boat to MGM was nice and relaxing. It is fun how you can take different modes of transportation around "the world" like monorail, bus, boat, etc. As we were on the boat, we noticed the path that you can actually walk from EPCOT to MGM, maybe we'll have to try that sometime. As soon as we entered the park, it was starting to rain. We had a couple of photopass pictures taken at the entryway, but we didn't know how they'd turn out with the rain. We checked our guidemap and planned out our day. We wanted to be sure & catch the Lights, Motors, Action stunt show as we had never seen it before and this would be our only day in this park. It seemed super crowded at the stunt show entry, I guess anytime they cram 5000 people in the same area it seems crowded. The line started to move and we just kept walking and walking until we finally reached the bleachers. We sat up quite a ways, which wasn't bad since we had a great view of everything. The stunt show was fun (and loud). I'm not sure I'd try to see it all of the time, but I'm glad I got to see it once.

As the show ended, the 5000 or so of us flooded the park. DH and I decided to catch a bite to eat (our second lunch, since we had split the first a couple hours before in EPCOT), so we went to Pizza Planet and shared a Pizza and Salad meal (complete with apple juice and a dessert thanks to the dining plan). Sharing meals turned out great because we didn't overeat and just had smaller meals more often. After lunch we decided a mellow ride would be great, so we headed for the Backlot Tour. On the way there we stopped for a couple of photopass pictures (with scenes looking like San Francisco in the background). It was fun to see these since I've now been to SF and I recognized the streets and landmarks shown. We got to the backlot tour and had to wait for a couple of groups before we got to go. I seem to remember in the past actually viewing some of the studio sets (back in 1999) but they weren't included on the tour anymore--does anyone know why? We enjoyed watching the 4 people participate on the boat set (we would like to do that sometime) and then we took the ride on the studio trams. It was fun to see the bone cages from Pirates, so we took some pictures to show to my nephew who LOVES pirates. While we were on the tour we went past the area where the stunt cars for Lights, Motors, Action, start out to get their speed, and we were able to wave to the driver and get him to rev his engine.

After the backlot tour, we checked out the Narnia set (DH and his family love Narnia--that is what their cabin is called and it is complete with a wardrobe and tons of Narnia decorations). Walking onto the soundstage was cool and we loved how it really felt like it was winter then changing to spring. DH liked the Narnia props at the end. We were hoping to run into someone from the Dream Squad. As we walked towards Tower of Terror and Rockin' Rollercoaster, we did meet one Dream Squad member, but they just talked to us and asked us how we were, were we given a dream yet, etc (unfortunately, we didn't win anything). We had to wait 20 minutes or so for Rockin' Rollercoaster, which wasn't too bad. I noticed that there were a LOT of high school girls around and I found out that there was a dance competition that weekend. DH and I love how the roller coaster starts out quickly. I used to not care for Aerosmith music, but now when I hear it I think of this great ride. After the ride we went over to Tower of Terror and enjoyed it as usual. We also watched the Beauty and the Beast stage show. The day was drawing to a close and we decided to skip Fantasmic (we just saw it at DL) and we didn't want to fight the crowds. We went on the Animation tour (too bad they don't actually use that studio anymore) and then caught the last show of Voyage of the Little Mermaid. We felt like we had a full day at MGM, though we were sad that Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is gone--it used to be our favorite attraction at MGM.

We had dinner reservations for Boma at AKL, but we decided not to go because we were getting tired of meat and it just didn't sound that great. We'll have to try it next time. We decided it would be fun to go to Saratoga Springs and have a look around, since that is where we own points at through DVC. We took a bus and got off at Congress Park. We wandered around the lobby, gift shop, food court, and pool area. It was dark, so it was hard to see much outside, so we decided to catch a boat to Downtown Disney to do a little browsing. I was trying to find the Liberty Mickey & Minnie plush that I thought I had seen on a previous trip, but I could only find the Minnie. Maybe that is all that they had and I just remembered wrong. We decided to pass on the plush because I really wanted a set for our collection (we have Thanksgiving, Halloween, Valentine's, classic, etc). We didn't really find anything that we had to have, and we knew we'd be back to DTD, so we headed to catch a bus to the Boardwalk. Once we got back to the Boardwalk, we were feeling pretty hungry since we hadn't had dinner yet (and it was getting late). We went to the little market in the gift shop and used a couple more snack credits on a box of chocolate chip cookies and some Smartfood popcorn and we purchased some milk and an apple (I think the apples for 99 cents are the best priced fruit at WDW). Since it was late, we weren't really up for a big meal, so we snacked on milk & cookies. We turned on the TV while we snacked and were getting pretty tired, so we decided it was time for bed.

 

[stampinshauna]

Saturday, February 3rd

We woke up and had donuts and juice for a quick breakfast and then headed to the Magic Kingdom to ride anything that we didn't ride the week before (and to repeat our favorites). It was sad to realize that this would be our last day in the parks. We had to hit some of our favorites like Splash Mountain (we had to do first), Pirates, Buzz, Space Mountain, and Thunder Mountain. Shortly after we got off Splash Mountain, we were stuck in a downpour. It was funny watching people scrambling for cover. We got in line for Pirates of the Caribbean, which I'm sure was longer than normal due to the fact that it was a great place to be out of the rain. We waited about 20 or 30 minutes to ride, which was probably our longest wait of the trip so I can't complain. We enjoyed the enhancements that they have made since our last trip in 2005 (the addition of Jack Sparrow), but couldn't help the fact that we compared it to Pirates at DL and knew that this one was not up to par (but we still enjoyed it). We wanted to see Country Bears but we kept missing the showtime by a minute or so. When there was about 10 minutes to showtime, we hurried to Aloha Isle for a scrumptious Dole Pineapple Float (great use of a snack credit) and then rushed back to find that we once again missed the show. Since we wanted to get on with our day, we opted to skip Country Bears. Fantasyland was a
sea of strollers, as can be expected. Peter Pan had a long line as usual, so we were happy that fastpasses were available.

We went to Cosmic Ray's for lunch and we picked the most expensive item for our counter service credit--the half chicken & ribs combo, with veggies, mashed potatoes, drink, and dessert. It would have come to $20--gotta love that dining plan. Luckily we decided to share because it was a lot of food and one meal was the perfect amount for the two of us. We took advantage of a couple more fastpasses that we had collected earlier and went on Buzz and Peter Pan before leaving the Magic Kingdom.

Since we were going to complete our park adventures in EPCOT, we opted to ride the monorail. When we got to the ticketing and transportation center, we found that we were some of the first in line for the next monorail to EPCOT. We asked about riding in the front (something I haven't done for probably 20 years) and were delighted to be told that we could. As we waited for the monorail to come, one of the CMs gave us a couple of transportation collector's cards that I didn't even know existed. I guess there is a series of 20 cards that each have fun facts and trivia on them. I quizzed DH as we waited and was able to stump him on a few of the questions--some of that trivia is hard! Just before we boarded the monorail, the CM swapped our cards for two new ones so that we had different trivia to learn. We loved riding in the front of the monorail. We had a great view of the track and of everything around us as we traveled to EPCOT. I noticed that there were birds on the track at EPCOT, but luckily they moved before we reached them. I hope that we can ride in the front again sometime, it is a neat experience.

Since we had limited time left in the park, we decided to skip a few attractions like Mission: SPACE and Universe of Energy. We went and picked up fastpasses for Test Track (I'm suprised that there is consistently a 60 minute or longer wait since it has been open since the late 1990s). We went on Spaceship Earth and had our Free Disney Visa Meet & Greet. We returned to Test Track and found that it was experiencing techincal difficulties, so we went and rode Maelstrom, watched the Chinese Acrobats, and went to the American Adventure. Before the American Adventure, we were able to listen to the Voices of Liberty. I love hearing them and I just feel so patriotic after being there. We then saw Belle and the Beast in France, so we had a picture taken with them. DH and I have a thing for Beauty and the Beast, as our first date was going to see the movie when it was re-released and was showing at the IMAX back in 2002. We returned to Test Track and waited about 15 minutes in the fastpass line and had a great ride. We then took a ferry across the World Showcase Lagoon and headed to Italy for our dinner reservation at Alfredo. Alfredo was my least favorite meal of the trip, which was too bad because I had high expectations. The homemade noodles were yummy, but the alfredo sauce wasn't that great. I also had a caesar salad which wasn't too bad. DH had the Pasta e Fagioli and the Lasagne, and he said they were just okay. Our server took a long time for just about everything (to bring us water, take our order, etc). As far as dessert goes, I'm glad we weren't paying out of pocket for it. I had the panna cotta (I thought it would be good, because it is yummy on DCL). It was nasty! They should pass out written menus with the dessert on them instead of just having you look at a tray and try to understand what they are describing. The panna cotta was green and not sweet at all. I think it was pesto and the thin red sauce served with it was not sweet either, and there were cherry tomatoes for garnish. Perhaps others like a dessert that isn't sweet, but to me it's not dessert unless it is sweet. DH had some chocolate thing that wasn't that great either, but it was a lot better than mine. I'm not sad that Alfredo's is changing ownership, maybe it will get better in my opinion. I was glad that we were on the dining plan so that I didn't feel so bad about spending money on a mediocre meal.

We finished our meal and then headed to Canada for the circlevision show. I was worn out and wished they had swivel chairs or something like that instead of having to stand. I think circlevision is better in the morning when your legs are not so worn out. We enjoyed the film and then it was time to say goodbye to EPCOT. We left through the International Gateway and stopped to pick up our photo on the way out. It wasn't there like it was supposed to be, so a nice CM offered us a free beverage as we waited for a runner to bring it from the front entrance. With picture in hand, we boarded the ferry and went back to our room at the boardwalk and crashed for the night.

 

[jrose529]

Great report, thanks for sharing.

I agree about Alfredo; we were very dissapointed when we were there a few weeks ago. We were glad we were on the DDP, so we didn't spend a fortune for a meal we didn't enjoy. The food on DCL was so much better.

 

[Miscoehill]

What was the temp on CC? We're thinking of going next year, Jan/Feb timeframe. Was the water cold?

Thanks,
Laurie

 

[stampinshauna]

What was the temp on CC? We're thinking of going next year, Jan/Feb timeframe. Was the water cold?

Thanks,
Laurie

I'd say it was in the 70s. We didn't do any swimming this time, but we did parasail and jetski and the weather was perfect. The water was a little cooler than I'd like, so we didn't swim. Weather is all relative. We had been stuck in the teens & 20s at home, so cruising in January was great!

 

[stampinshauna]

I think that it is finally time (or way past time) that I wrap up this trip report.

Sunday, February 4th

We woke up and had a somewhat leisurely morning. We still had a table service credit to use, so we went to the Cape May Cafe over at the Beach Club for a character breakfast. It was a nice morning, so we enjoyed the short walk there from the Boardwalk. Breakfast was good and it really didn't take that long. We then decided that it would be nice to go enjoy the pool & hot tub since we weren't going into the parks anymore. It turned out that the pool wasn't really open yet, so we just hot-tubbed (which was just fine with me). After relaxing for about an hour, we decided that we'd better go get ready for the day and finish packing. We checked out of the Boardwalk and were able to check out bags there for the flight (I loved this new feature). We left our carry-ons with the bell desk and decided to head to Downtown Disney for a while.

We wandered around Downtown Disney and did a little bit of last-minute shopping. DH loved the Wilderness Lodge Lincoln Logs, so I picked those up for his birthday (they were awkward to lug around, but it was better than paying to ship them home). I finally found my pink Mickey crocs at the World of Disney--I had only seen the black & red ones during the trip, so I had to buy the pink ones. I was wearing a pink Mickey polo, so the crocs matched perfectly. We picked up a couple more items and then decided that we'd better hurry and get some lunch. We were hoping to use our last counter service to eat at Wolfgang Puck Express, but the line was WAY too long, and we had to be back at the Boarwalk around 2:30 for the Magical Express back to the airport. We opted to skip eating at Downtown Disney and we caught the bus back to the Boardwalk.

We found out that the Boardwalk was the last stop (first the Swan, Dolphin, Yacht Club, and Beach Club) and we were really getting worried about the time. We found out that we could get out at the Swan & Dolphin and walk to the Boardwalk so we did just that. I'm sure we probably saved ourselves 10 minutes or so on the bus, and we got our exercise by walking (very briskly). We got to the Boardwalk with 5-10 minutes to spare (cutting it close) so I sent DH with to the Boardwalk Bakery to try and get us some lunch (and use up our last dining credit). I picked up our carryons and waited out by the Magical Express. DH made it with a few minutes to spare. He got a couple of sandwiches, drinks, and desserts. The sandwiches were huge so we split one while waiting for the Magical Express and took the other and the desserts to the airport.

We got to the airport in plenty of time (I wish we didn't have to take such an early ME but that is what they assigned us). Since we had already checked our bags, we had some time to kill. We sat down and enjoyed the rest of our late lunch and wandered around the Disney shop before going through security. We finally decided that we should go to the gate and face the fact that it was time to go home. We had a wonderful trip and hated to leave it, but at least we knew that we'd be back, even if it's not until November of 2008.