R.S.Winters
Character Hunter
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2006
- Messages
- 1,347
Walt Disney World Resort Trip Report June 2008
Dates: Wednesday 4th June – Sunday 8th June 2008
Guests: Dan (R.S.Winters) and Jon (PeterPan)
Hotel: Pop Century
Arriving at the Pop Century, Magic Kingdom and EPCOT:
On the 4th June this month Jon and I went on our first trip together to Walt Disney World. It was also our first Disney trip together.
We flew from Baltimore to Orlando.
It was the first time I had stayed onsite at WDW property and thus also the first time I had used the Disney’s Magical Express service (DME).
Apart from a small complication when checking on for the DME (if only the CM had used the reservation number I had told her to!) everything ran pretty smoothly, and by about 11am we were in WDW.
I had hoped that we were housed in the 1960’s section of the Pop Century, and my wish came true, as when we checked in we were indeed put in the 1960’s section!
The Pop Century is a GREAT value hotel. It is larger than life, bright and colourful and has a great atmosphere.
The 1960’s section is the closest to the main entrance and all the resort facilities which is really great.
There are a lot of cool things to take pictures of at the Pop, including the giant Baloo and Mowgli and the giant pot of Playdoh in the 1960’s section.
The rooms are pretty basic, but are clean and serve the purpose for which they are required.
After checking in and dropping our hand luggage (our main cases being dealt with by the DME to maximise your time and enjoyment), we made our way to the bus for our first park – EPCOT.
On arrival at EPCOT I purchased an Annual Pass as we also have a 9 day trip in September and it is cheaper and more convenient to have an AP.
I was quite excited about going to EPCOT. The last time I had been to WDW was in November 2006, and since then EPCOT had made a few changes.
First of all Spaceship Earth no longer donned the giant wand. Also the ride inside had undergone some enhancements. The best of these being the new interactive video at the end, which provides some amusing entertainment…
They had also made a new interactive area at the end of the ride.
Other attractions we did in EPCOT this day were:
Soarin’
The Seas with Nemo and Friends
The Living Seas tanks
Turtle Talk with Crush
Journey into Imagination with Figment
And the Mexico ride with the Three Cabelleros – which was also different since I last went on it.
We managed to also visit Mexico, China and Norway.
We met the following characters at EPCOT:
Mulan and Mushu
Mexican Donald
We managed to eat lunch in EPCOT at Seasons in The Land. We also stopped for a drink at the Electric Umbrella and visited the EPCOT 25 Years Exhibit in the Innoventions building behind the Character Spot.
As you can see we managed a lot in EPCOT that day – and we were only there for about 4 hours from lunch time until we left for the Magic Kingdom – aboard the Monorail.
We made our way to the Magic Kingdom for the Pirate and Princess Party that evening.
Our driver aboard Monorail Pink from the TTC to the Park was amusing to say the least, wanting to know if we were there for the weekends “events” (Gay Days).
On arrival at Magic Kingdom we were presented with another hiccup – our tickets that were sent to Jon were the wrong date! So we had to get new ones printed at Guest Relations, which was fine! Phew!
So into the Magic Kingdom we went, picking up the special event guide maps and wrist band as we went in.
At the party that evening we made it a priority to do Pirates of the Caribbean seeing as it was going to be closed for the rest of the trip for refurbishments.
We also managed to ride the Haunted Mansion – which had also undergone some cool new changes since I had last ridden it.
We also managed to meet a whole bunch of characters:
Peter Pan
Aladdin and Jasmine
Pirate Mickey and Pirate Pluto
Pirate Donald and Pirate Goofy
Meeko
Pocahontas and John Smith
Commander Norrington
Captain Barbossa
A Pirate Wench
Sebastian
Flounder
Chip
Dale
That night we watched the cool Pirate and Princess Enchanted Adventures Parade and the Music, Magic Mayhem fireworks, which were awesome! The perimeter fireworks during this display are far superior to the Halloween ones.
We managed to also see Mickey’s PhilharMagic and some other attractions.
We ate that evening at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café where they had the Eclipses Mini Mixes disco where Lilo, Stitch and Chip and Dale danced the night away.
Overall in the Magic Kingdom throughout the trip we managed to see every attraction, and all the parades (Dreams Come True – twice, SpectroMagic – 3 times) and fireworks (Wishes – twice).
The only listed attractions that we did not see were:
The Hall of Presidents
The Walt Disney World Railroad
The Country Bears
Tom Sawyers Island
The Liberty Bell Riverboat
Main Street Vehicles
Carrousel of Progress
We managed to see everything else, including some things more than once.
On this trip Dumbo was a “new” attraction to me as I had never ridden it before. Since my last visit Monsters Inc Laugh Floor was new too, and we managed to see that once. I thought it was very funny, and definitely a worthwhile replacement to the old Timekeeper.
New to Jon this trip was the Flying Carpets and Goofy’s Barnstormer in Magic Kingdom, as well as Turtle Talk with Crush in EPCOT.
New to both of us was Storytime with Belle tucked away behind the Castle.
After we got to meet Belle.
We also visited the Magic Kingdom all day on the Thursday (5th June), and all day on Saturday (7th June).
During this time we managed to meet even more characters including:
Winnie the Pooh
Eeyore
Tigger
Piglet
Stitch
Peter Pan and Wendy (several times!)
Fairy Godmother
Snow White – met randomly while exploring Expo Hall (somewhere else I had never been)!
Timon
Woody and Jessie
Hook
Belle
Lady Tremaine, Anastasia and Drisella
We ate or got snacks or drinks from a variety of places on this trip, including:
Aloha Isle
Lunching Pad
Sleepy Hollow – mm waffles!
Casey’s Corner
Crystal Palace (Character Buffet with the Winnie the Pooh gang!) on the Saturday morning
The hotel (Pop)
Pinocchio’s Village Haus – great view from the terrace upstairs!
Pecos Bill Café
Magic Kingdom had Extra Magic Hours on two days of our trip which we took advantage of – Thursday morning and Friday night.
On the Saturday while we were there was Gay Days at the Magic Kingdom, which was a new experience to both Jon and me. Gay people from the world over donned their red shirts in recognition of their pride.
It was really great to see so many gay people all having fun in one place – a place that I love so much too. Disney attracts a lot of gay people period, and usually one gay person can spot another pretty easily, but having it so visually presented to you was amazing. The Park was flooded with red the whole day. It was quite extraordinary.
On Thursday we met with 2 of Jon’s friends who are CM’s and had dinner with them in Cosmic Ray’s.
Downtown Disney and the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa
On Thursday we took a sidetrack from the Park on the monorail to the Grand Floridian hotel. I had never been inside the GF before and thought it would be nice to check it out after a long day in the park, and Jon agreed!
We walked about the grounds, took some photos, went in the 2 gift shops and checked out the grand lobby.
It’s a very nice hotel – with a nice price attached to it too! I look forward to eating our Character meal at 1900 Park Fair there in September!
Saturday we decided to take some time out and visit Downtown Disney.
We ate at The Earl of Sandwich, which I had never eaten at before, which was really nice. We only visited Market Place, but spent about 2 hours walking around the stores and taking photographs.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Star Wars Weekends:
On Friday and Sunday we attended Star Wars Weekends at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
This was a new event to both me and Jon. The weather was extraordinarily hot the whole trip, but Friday was over my limit. It was to the point of beyond unbearable, and made for a very uncomfortable day.
Waiting in the VERY long lines all day, and standing out in the heat for the Motorcade and Block Party Bash was exhausting.
But, we did get to see Star Wars Weekends, we did pick up lots of cool merchandise, we met LOADS of excellent characters and experienced some new things along the way.
Some of the many characters we were able to meet include:
Sorcerer Mickey (which I was extremely pleased about!)
Darth Vader
Darth Maul
Jango Fett and Zam Wesell
Anakin Skywalker
Queen Amidala
Green Army Man
Sand Person
Jawa Person
Gamorrean Guard
Vader Goofy, Leia Minnie and Stormtrooper Donald – which absolutely ROCKED! Despite the wait and the heat!
Daisy Duck
Lilo and Stitch
Ahsoka Tano (Jedi)
Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable
Annie from Little Einsteins
Prince Caspian (which we were both very happy about!)
We both experienced the NEW Toy Story Midway Mania ride for the first time. That’s cool. Not quite worth the hype and 110min line that it has been attracting I don’t think personally, but it was pretty neat nonetheless.
Also new to me was Block Party Bash. I originally had my reservations about this “parade”. But was soon won over by the relocated show piece from Disney’s California Adventure! It is a very cool, lively and colourful event – despite the blazing hot June sun…
Places we ate / got drinks from included:
Toy Story Pizza Planet – nowhere near as cool as he Disneyland Paris one – and MEGA busy, with very little seating
ABC Commissary
Anaheim Produce
Other attractions we saw:
Fantasmic!
Muppet Vision 3D
Star Tours
We stayed to watch the Hyperspace Hoopla too, which was entertaining! Star Wars character doing Thriller and the YMCA… Interesting to say the least!
The Star Wars Motorcade we saw twice and included three celebrities from the Star Wars saga:
Daniel Logan
Jeremy Bulloch
Warwick Davies (who I have seen before incidentally at a Star Wars event in the UK!)
They gave out special guide maps for the event and presigned autographed photos from the celebrities.
Overall I would say it was a great weekend for die hard Star Wars fans, but you have to be prepared to wait a LONG time in BLAZING heat and INTENSE Florida sun before you get anywhere.
I am glad I went to experience it, but I won’t be going in that weekend again in a hurry. I prefer the quieter, cooler times! Lol.
In conclusion we had a totally AWESOME trip.
Was fantastic to every degree, but it was HOT, and that made it tiring and a little uncomfortable.
Roll on September!!
Dx
Dates: Wednesday 4th June – Sunday 8th June 2008
Guests: Dan (R.S.Winters) and Jon (PeterPan)
Hotel: Pop Century
Arriving at the Pop Century, Magic Kingdom and EPCOT:
On the 4th June this month Jon and I went on our first trip together to Walt Disney World. It was also our first Disney trip together.
We flew from Baltimore to Orlando.
It was the first time I had stayed onsite at WDW property and thus also the first time I had used the Disney’s Magical Express service (DME).
Apart from a small complication when checking on for the DME (if only the CM had used the reservation number I had told her to!) everything ran pretty smoothly, and by about 11am we were in WDW.
I had hoped that we were housed in the 1960’s section of the Pop Century, and my wish came true, as when we checked in we were indeed put in the 1960’s section!
The Pop Century is a GREAT value hotel. It is larger than life, bright and colourful and has a great atmosphere.
The 1960’s section is the closest to the main entrance and all the resort facilities which is really great.
There are a lot of cool things to take pictures of at the Pop, including the giant Baloo and Mowgli and the giant pot of Playdoh in the 1960’s section.
The rooms are pretty basic, but are clean and serve the purpose for which they are required.
After checking in and dropping our hand luggage (our main cases being dealt with by the DME to maximise your time and enjoyment), we made our way to the bus for our first park – EPCOT.
On arrival at EPCOT I purchased an Annual Pass as we also have a 9 day trip in September and it is cheaper and more convenient to have an AP.
I was quite excited about going to EPCOT. The last time I had been to WDW was in November 2006, and since then EPCOT had made a few changes.
First of all Spaceship Earth no longer donned the giant wand. Also the ride inside had undergone some enhancements. The best of these being the new interactive video at the end, which provides some amusing entertainment…
They had also made a new interactive area at the end of the ride.
Other attractions we did in EPCOT this day were:
Soarin’
The Seas with Nemo and Friends
The Living Seas tanks
Turtle Talk with Crush
Journey into Imagination with Figment
And the Mexico ride with the Three Cabelleros – which was also different since I last went on it.
We managed to also visit Mexico, China and Norway.
We met the following characters at EPCOT:
Mulan and Mushu
Mexican Donald
We managed to eat lunch in EPCOT at Seasons in The Land. We also stopped for a drink at the Electric Umbrella and visited the EPCOT 25 Years Exhibit in the Innoventions building behind the Character Spot.
As you can see we managed a lot in EPCOT that day – and we were only there for about 4 hours from lunch time until we left for the Magic Kingdom – aboard the Monorail.
We made our way to the Magic Kingdom for the Pirate and Princess Party that evening.
Our driver aboard Monorail Pink from the TTC to the Park was amusing to say the least, wanting to know if we were there for the weekends “events” (Gay Days).
On arrival at Magic Kingdom we were presented with another hiccup – our tickets that were sent to Jon were the wrong date! So we had to get new ones printed at Guest Relations, which was fine! Phew!
So into the Magic Kingdom we went, picking up the special event guide maps and wrist band as we went in.
At the party that evening we made it a priority to do Pirates of the Caribbean seeing as it was going to be closed for the rest of the trip for refurbishments.
We also managed to ride the Haunted Mansion – which had also undergone some cool new changes since I had last ridden it.
We also managed to meet a whole bunch of characters:
Peter Pan
Aladdin and Jasmine
Pirate Mickey and Pirate Pluto
Pirate Donald and Pirate Goofy
Meeko
Pocahontas and John Smith
Commander Norrington
Captain Barbossa
A Pirate Wench
Sebastian
Flounder
Chip
Dale
That night we watched the cool Pirate and Princess Enchanted Adventures Parade and the Music, Magic Mayhem fireworks, which were awesome! The perimeter fireworks during this display are far superior to the Halloween ones.
We managed to also see Mickey’s PhilharMagic and some other attractions.
We ate that evening at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café where they had the Eclipses Mini Mixes disco where Lilo, Stitch and Chip and Dale danced the night away.
Overall in the Magic Kingdom throughout the trip we managed to see every attraction, and all the parades (Dreams Come True – twice, SpectroMagic – 3 times) and fireworks (Wishes – twice).
The only listed attractions that we did not see were:
The Hall of Presidents
The Walt Disney World Railroad
The Country Bears
Tom Sawyers Island
The Liberty Bell Riverboat
Main Street Vehicles
Carrousel of Progress
We managed to see everything else, including some things more than once.
On this trip Dumbo was a “new” attraction to me as I had never ridden it before. Since my last visit Monsters Inc Laugh Floor was new too, and we managed to see that once. I thought it was very funny, and definitely a worthwhile replacement to the old Timekeeper.
New to Jon this trip was the Flying Carpets and Goofy’s Barnstormer in Magic Kingdom, as well as Turtle Talk with Crush in EPCOT.
New to both of us was Storytime with Belle tucked away behind the Castle.
After we got to meet Belle.
We also visited the Magic Kingdom all day on the Thursday (5th June), and all day on Saturday (7th June).
During this time we managed to meet even more characters including:
Winnie the Pooh
Eeyore
Tigger
Piglet
Stitch
Peter Pan and Wendy (several times!)
Fairy Godmother
Snow White – met randomly while exploring Expo Hall (somewhere else I had never been)!
Timon
Woody and Jessie
Hook
Belle
Lady Tremaine, Anastasia and Drisella
We ate or got snacks or drinks from a variety of places on this trip, including:
Aloha Isle
Lunching Pad
Sleepy Hollow – mm waffles!
Casey’s Corner
Crystal Palace (Character Buffet with the Winnie the Pooh gang!) on the Saturday morning
The hotel (Pop)
Pinocchio’s Village Haus – great view from the terrace upstairs!
Pecos Bill Café
Magic Kingdom had Extra Magic Hours on two days of our trip which we took advantage of – Thursday morning and Friday night.
On the Saturday while we were there was Gay Days at the Magic Kingdom, which was a new experience to both Jon and me. Gay people from the world over donned their red shirts in recognition of their pride.
It was really great to see so many gay people all having fun in one place – a place that I love so much too. Disney attracts a lot of gay people period, and usually one gay person can spot another pretty easily, but having it so visually presented to you was amazing. The Park was flooded with red the whole day. It was quite extraordinary.
On Thursday we met with 2 of Jon’s friends who are CM’s and had dinner with them in Cosmic Ray’s.
Downtown Disney and the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa
On Thursday we took a sidetrack from the Park on the monorail to the Grand Floridian hotel. I had never been inside the GF before and thought it would be nice to check it out after a long day in the park, and Jon agreed!
We walked about the grounds, took some photos, went in the 2 gift shops and checked out the grand lobby.
It’s a very nice hotel – with a nice price attached to it too! I look forward to eating our Character meal at 1900 Park Fair there in September!
Saturday we decided to take some time out and visit Downtown Disney.
We ate at The Earl of Sandwich, which I had never eaten at before, which was really nice. We only visited Market Place, but spent about 2 hours walking around the stores and taking photographs.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Star Wars Weekends:
On Friday and Sunday we attended Star Wars Weekends at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
This was a new event to both me and Jon. The weather was extraordinarily hot the whole trip, but Friday was over my limit. It was to the point of beyond unbearable, and made for a very uncomfortable day.
Waiting in the VERY long lines all day, and standing out in the heat for the Motorcade and Block Party Bash was exhausting.
But, we did get to see Star Wars Weekends, we did pick up lots of cool merchandise, we met LOADS of excellent characters and experienced some new things along the way.
Some of the many characters we were able to meet include:
Sorcerer Mickey (which I was extremely pleased about!)
Darth Vader
Darth Maul
Jango Fett and Zam Wesell
Anakin Skywalker
Queen Amidala
Green Army Man
Sand Person
Jawa Person
Gamorrean Guard
Vader Goofy, Leia Minnie and Stormtrooper Donald – which absolutely ROCKED! Despite the wait and the heat!
Daisy Duck
Lilo and Stitch
Ahsoka Tano (Jedi)
Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable
Annie from Little Einsteins
Prince Caspian (which we were both very happy about!)
We both experienced the NEW Toy Story Midway Mania ride for the first time. That’s cool. Not quite worth the hype and 110min line that it has been attracting I don’t think personally, but it was pretty neat nonetheless.
Also new to me was Block Party Bash. I originally had my reservations about this “parade”. But was soon won over by the relocated show piece from Disney’s California Adventure! It is a very cool, lively and colourful event – despite the blazing hot June sun…
Places we ate / got drinks from included:
Toy Story Pizza Planet – nowhere near as cool as he Disneyland Paris one – and MEGA busy, with very little seating
ABC Commissary
Anaheim Produce
Other attractions we saw:
Fantasmic!
Muppet Vision 3D
Star Tours
We stayed to watch the Hyperspace Hoopla too, which was entertaining! Star Wars character doing Thriller and the YMCA… Interesting to say the least!
The Star Wars Motorcade we saw twice and included three celebrities from the Star Wars saga:
Daniel Logan
Jeremy Bulloch
Warwick Davies (who I have seen before incidentally at a Star Wars event in the UK!)
They gave out special guide maps for the event and presigned autographed photos from the celebrities.
Overall I would say it was a great weekend for die hard Star Wars fans, but you have to be prepared to wait a LONG time in BLAZING heat and INTENSE Florida sun before you get anywhere.
I am glad I went to experience it, but I won’t be going in that weekend again in a hurry. I prefer the quieter, cooler times! Lol.
In conclusion we had a totally AWESOME trip.
Was fantastic to every degree, but it was HOT, and that made it tiring and a little uncomfortable.
Roll on September!!
Dx
