Patrick's Trip Report Space

avenueqpat

Princess Fan!
Joined
Apr 1, 2008
Messages
107
Hi All!

I think that I tried to do a trip report for my trip last April.....but it never happened! So I have become determined to get one up this time, and then be able to look back on it when my friends say what did you do here, and I end up making it up! :laughing:

So this will be my trip report spot for all of my fellow family members! (Also, I have just been a big old lurker for the most part on this board - so hopefully I will make some e-friends who love Disney as much as me)

I leave on Monday the 12th, and will probably put up some information before I go. I highly doubt I will be bringing my laptop with me as I don't really want to pay extra for the internet when I could be out meeting come characters or going on rides.

Feel free to leave comments as the report progresses!
 
So, I guess this is where I will start.

I have been staying in Albany NY which is my home base after spending some of the best time of my life in NYC. I am in the theater and about 80% of my friends live in the city. I have been having a pretty lonely month, and have been annoyed with the lack of work and the economy. Once I realized that I needed something to do to keep my sanity I narrowed it down to 2 choices.

1) Go to NYC for a couple of days and see the closing night of Gypsy with Patti Lupone (which is tomorrow - and that will be a somber day):guilty:

OR

2) Take a mini trip to Orlando Florida where the sun is warm, the princesses are in full bloom, and where I know I will have a great time for more than a day.

I decided on Florida :woohoo:

I hopped online and found the 40% off special on Value Resorts and booked a 4 night stay at All Star Music for about 56 dollars a night with tax - AWESOME!

Found a cheap flight from Albany to Orlando on Northwest and signed up for Magical Express.

And since I am a part year resident of Florida, I am able to get my tickets at a reduced rate. (Yes - I truly do live all over the place!!!!! Wherever the entertainment jobs are....I will be there).

Since then I have been doing various planning through this board, as well as a few other sites and I have a basic plan.

Monday 1-12: Leave Albany at 7AM, Layover, and arrive in Orlando at 12:55 PM. Originally I was going to check in and make my way to Downtown Disney, or enjoy the resort entertainment, however my old director Chuck lives in Florida now, and we are going to get together to go off Disney Property and have dinner, and then go out to a bar later on.

Tuesday 1-13: Chuck is a full time Florida resident but prefers the other parks down there, so he doesn't have an AP nor does he get the Park Hopper option - so we are going to spend the day at Disney Hollywood Studios since he has never been there before, and try to hit as many rides as possible.

Wednesday 1-14: My Mothers Birthday - unfortunately she is stuck in NY as she couldn't get time off from work to come down, but I will be sure to give her a call, and I need to buy her something tinker bellish :) I think that I am going to go to Epcot first and hit the "big rides" (Mission Space, Test Track, and Soarin)...maybe go around the world, but I am usually more into rides. But there are a lot of Characters in the showcases....hmmm....If I have time I will hop on over to the Magic Kingdom!

Thursday 1-15: Depending on what I still have to see at the Magic Kingdom I will go there first for morning hours, and MIGHT go to the Animal Kingdom at lunch time. I have never had a big interest in that park, but if I think MK is getting too crowded then I will head back to DHS which is my favorite park!

Friday 1-16: Come Home :sad2: However the good news is that I start a job in Pennsylvania the next week, and I will be in a great mood for it :woohoo:

Still need to pack :scared1: but at least it will only be a carry on with clothes stuffed in TIGHT. Also, I either need to force myself to sleep and get up at 5AM tonight to get into a schedule, or stay up till 8 PM tomorrow night. My schedule has been nuts and I have been sleeping at random times and need to get back to normal! (Ex. Today I slept from 10 AM to 6:30 - WTH!!!!!!)

Very Excited and can't wait to be there!:dance3: :yay: :woohoo: :cheer2: :grouphug:

THOUGHT OF THE DAY - Why does DHS have Mickey's Hat as a symbol. It isn't really his hat - he stole it from the sorcerer - MICKEY IS A THIEF!
 
I SOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSO wanted to see Gypsy. In fact my mom was going to take me in March for my B-day....until we found out it was only going on til this weekend (I saw the sign in Nov, but we didn't look into it until 2 weeks ago).


I SO want to go back to WDW again...so I am SO jealous of you!

Enjoy your trip!
 

I SOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSO wanted to see Gypsy. In fact my mom was going to take me in March for my B-day....until we found out it was only going on til this weekend (I saw the sign in Nov, but we didn't look into it until 2 weeks ago).

It was supposed to go on till March too - that's what stinks the most. I was going to go on March 1st which was the original closing date, but Broadway is feeling the economic crunch too - I think there are 10 or 11 shows closing this month alone :(
 
popcorn::

Are you going to be able to post at Disney?
 
popcorn::

Are you going to be able to post at Disney?

Not Sure Yet.......if I do it probably won't include a whole lot of pictures as I would only be using Dial Up to get online, but I promise that they will start being uploaded Friday the 16th at the LATEST
 
All Packed!!!!!!!!!!

Mostly with pants instead of shorts, as it looks like it will be in the 60's all week.....but thats the way the mouse crumbles.

What might be good is the rain on Tuesday - it sounds like rain will drive the crowds away from the parks, so I will be happy to take an umbrella, and deal with it for quicker times on the rides.

My idiocy of the day.....I was supposed to make a transfer from my vacation club to my checking account before 3 today....totally forgot. So now I am now going to have extra trip money till Wednesday. Fortunately, it is my understanding that i can use my card and connect it to my room key and they will not charge it till checkout on Friday - and if anybody thinks that isn't true please warn me! It has money on it for their initial check....just not enough for 3 days if I eat at Table Service :headache: So that was my idiot moment of the day.

Have all my paperwork set up for ME, and ready to frolic in the warm (sort of), sun (some days) beautiful world of Disney
 
Hi Everybody!!!!!

I am back from a great (mostly solo) trip, and can't wait to share it.

So lets start with Day 1!

I got to get up early for a 6:55 flight - nice and drama free, and then I had a not so nice transfer.

First of all, I had to gate check my carry on bag - or so I thought.....I actually had to have it checked normally which led to an extra 30 minutes of waiting at baggage claim. Now if I had other bags there, or if I had brought along my luggage tags - I wouldn't have cared - but I wanted to get on the bus and get to the resort!

Also, they had to "jump-start" the plane, which led to another 20 minute wait at the beginning of the flight.

Eventually I finally get to the Orlando airport, and I get my bags, and make my way over to the Magical Express check-in. Aside from the fact the people didn't listen to the one person in line per party, it went pretty smoothly.

Finally, we get to the All Star Music resort. I thought that I would post up some pictures since they put me in the best building ever -----

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For those of you who don't know, I am a theater musician, so I was quite happy.

Some pictures of my room.....
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Fun Times!!!!!

Since I didn't want to go to a park for only a few hours, I decided to make my way to Downtown Disney, and the Boardwalk, and I included some of my favorite shots from those 2 places.

World of Disney - 1 of 3 Entrances
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The Castle at the WOD Store
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I also love looking at the paintings, and sculptures that the art stores have, so some of my favorites are here.
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And some fun Lego Artwork!

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Then I hopped on the bus after buying my Mickey Pride Pin to the Boardwalk resorts, and I got some fun pictures of the sights.

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Overall, a very fun day - although I wasn't in the parks, it was fun to walk around and see some parts of the WDW Resort that I had not seen before.

More to come!
 
just found your tr and am along for the ride.

great pics.
 
Awesome pics! The Boardwalk area is my favorite place to go to just hang out and people watch -- almost always something interesting happening.
 
Great pics so far! Can't wait to see more! I contemplated staying at ASMu mainly because of the Broadway building. I went with POP instead. lol
 
So - after a pretty early night to bed, I woke up even before my alarm went off - AT 4 AM!!!!! Some vacation, huh?!

I worked my way down for a delicious 6 AM breakfast at the Intermission Cafe where I got my brand new resort mug - although the one that I brought still had the same design, I lost the top for it! And I figured better safe than sorry.

I actually have plans to meet up with my old director from High School who is now living in Orlando, who is a big thrill rider so I know we will have fun on the many thrill rides at DHS.........:snooty: :)

I actually got to see the rope drop ceremony which - as cheesy as it was - was pretty cute. They picked out a newly married couple as their family of the day, and after the count down came my favorite part of all the rope drops - the Disney music! At all 3 of the parks where I saw the rope drops, they just got me in the mood to have a fun day - and it was good walking music to get to Toy Story Mania.

(Chuck hasn't arrived yet (as he always tends to be late) and I decided I would start the day by myself, and re-ride things with him.)

Fast Pass first, ride it 2nd! This was my first time on it, and some of my favorite pictures from the queue.

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I love how the Peter Pan viewfinder disc just stops half way through the movie....shouldn't they have labeled that Disc 1??? How is a kid supposed to know whats going on!

Toy Story Mania is a really fun ride - although my Highest score for the day was only 147,000, I know that I am going to try and beat that next time!

Then I made a quick run over to Rock'n Roller Coaster and ran into some cute "high school" boys, who are obviously in their early (to mid) 20's!

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Basically - this was just a snap and go - I have never even seen HSM, and have no desire too, except maybe for Zac Efron :flower3:

I LOVE THE ROLLER COASTER. It has an awesome launch, and some great music!

Chuck is still not here, but it is only 9:30, so I go back over to TSM for a 2nd ride through when he calls me I am just boarding the ride and he says he is in the park - so I go through it again, and when I walk outside there he is - so we get in line for my 3rd time!

He actually had never been to the park before, but he only came in behind me by about 5,000 points when we rode - good eye!

Then we did a walk on for the Roller Coaster, and then hopped on to the Tower of Terror. Chuck said it was fun but it wasn't the great - so I dragged him on a 2nd time where we got a much more exciting drop sequence and he enjoyed it more.

Now I will warn people that the drop sequence can be REALLY random sometimes - usually it gets to the bottom and the video starts and you are at the end of the ride....and I am always pretty fearful of flying out of the seat so I am holding onto the "Oh **** Bar". So we get down there and I take my hand off of it - AND THE ELEVATOR GOES UP AGAIN - I flipped my ****! There was a new screamer in that group for the last drop!

We were then trying to kill some time before lunch (that I made a reservation for the night before - so that tells you how empty the park is!) so we stopped by the Indiana Jones Stunt Show....not all the exciting, but I took a couple of pics.

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Unfortunately, nothing is happening in them.....sort of how I felt about the show. Disney usually does a really good job with the special effects, but when the car flipped over, and the ladder swung back and forth it looked really fake and cheesy. I know things have to be done with safety in mind first, but it sort of took me out of the moment.

We headed over to the 50's Prime Time Cafe where we ate lunch with Cousin Lydia ------- she was amazing and had us laughing the ENTIRE MEAL!!!!! I didn't get a chance to take a picture of her, but I did stop by Guest Relations later that day and told them how great she was. If anybody ever goes there, ask for her! (But make sure you have a sense of humor going there - otherwise it would be a real turnoff)

After lunch we hopped over to the Muppet 3d Adventure - another disappointment. When I saw it in California it was the first 3d movie I ever saw with the new glasses (not the red and blue ones) and I was amazed, but after seeing Bolt and Philharmagic, this was was just an old school film that needs to be updated. Still funny, but the 3d images are not at all crisp.

We headed over to The Great Movie Ride next - and one of my favorites shots in it...

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Our guide seemed a little over the ride and his spiel, but the gangster totally made up for it!

Chuck actually had to run after this, so I got to spend the rest of my day exploring the park by myself and had a great time. I found another art store, so here are some more of my favorites!

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I also got my first character picture of the trip.....

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.....where I learned not to pose like the characters, because I look like a dork. LOL

I took some time to walk around the streets of the world

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and then decided to see how long the Toy Story wait was - 30 minutes.....really good for 4 in the afternoon, but I hadn't waited that long for anything else today, so I went back over to RnRC and ToT, and got a few walk-ons in.....final ride count of the day?

RnRC - 8
Tot - 5
TSM - 3

And never with a wait of more than 15 minutes for any of them!!!!!

It was a great day, but I wanted to get back to the hotel and get some sleep to get ready for my 2nd day in the parks!!!!!

SHOT OF THE DAY

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THANKS ALL FOR READING AND FOR YOUR COMMENTS!
 
You do not look like a dork!

Great TR, but I gotta ask. What was going on with the Big Dumb Hat in those HSM pics? Are they really taking it down? Could you tell what was going on?


Please Please Please take it down!
 
great update and pics.

love the pic of TOT lit up.

Lucky you riding all those times. I got on TSM once and that was it.
 
You do not look like a dork!

Great TR, but I gotta ask. What was going on with the Big Dumb Hat in those HSM pics? Are they really taking it down? Could you tell what was going on?


Please Please Please take it down!

No idea what they are doing with the hat ----- but like I said on another thread - Mickey STOLE that hat!!!!! Why is the product of an illegal act a park symbol for children?
 



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