Really Overdue Trip Report for May 2004 WE HAD FUN AT POFQ!

[Eyore4Ever149]

Hello All my fellow Dis Folks!

Since the site seems to be down at the moment I thought I would get a jump on my story my writing it in a Word Doc and then pasting in later. I sure do hope they get the site up and running soon! First, let me apologize for being so overdue in getting this trip report written! Our trip was May 5-10th (I think). Cast: Just me and my husband (Tom). We had wonderful weather for our whole trip, which was fabulous. We also went during the Epcot Flower and Garden Show. We took so many photos. I will post some here, but please feel free to check out my webshots photo library for LOTS more. I will write my entire journal in this one entry, so that folks don¡¦t have to go searching for the different pages to follow along. I realize that means there are no cliff hangers¡Kbut I am all about effeciancy! ƒº

Our First Day:
We got up at 4:00AM to reach La Guardia for a 7:50AM flight out. I believe we flew Song airlines. We got an excellent long term parking spot, right in front of the airline enterence! Hauled our luggage in and stood in line. Unfortunately,Our flight was delayed, by close to 2 hours¡K.I had to get up to go to the ladies room and there were so many people, baby carriages, carry on luggage, etc, I was trying to be careful not to step on anyone or thing and managed to twist my ankle a bit. Oh yeah. At least it wasn¡¦t bad. Then I pulled out the Invisable Ink Books and my husband and I tested each other on spots trivia, and other stuff. When we tired of that I pulled out our Mad Libs (from the DisShop!) and had fun doing the Mad Libs for vacations. What a hoot- I made sure to put those in our memory album when we returned. FINALLY our flight was called and we were on our way. No other hold ups after that!
We arrived with no issues, and found the Emerald Isle very easily (that¡¦s DIS transportation boards for the tips on how to become a member for free!. What fun to pick out our own car!! I wanted a PT Cruiser at first, but realized for lots of parking and stuff, we probably wanted a small car, I can¡¦t remember what we got, but it worked out perfectly! The air conditioning was great. The lady at the exit was so polite and friendly- what an easy transition! We were on the road less than 30min after getting our luggage. Tom hooked up the GPS and we were on our way to WALT DISNEY WORLD!! What a gorgeous day it was- nothing but blue skys! If you are interested in getting our saved GPS coordinates you can visit my husband¡¦s blog for entries- http://blog.tmcnet.com/cgi-bin/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=4&search=disney+world, we used these both inside and out of the parks all over the world- even to help us find our car!
I could not believe how quickly we arrived at our resort¡K.after much research I decided on Port Orleans French Quarter. When we arrived to the large enterence, outdoor ceiling fans and friendly folks I could just feel already I had made the right choice. We were early, so I figured letting husband get room was safe, I waited in the car for his return. I had already put my room request in. He came back with the opposite of what I asked for. A smoking room for starters. I was upset for a moment¡Kthen breathed in and out. I went in and found out he had worked with a young man who was very new. The young man was wonderful about adjusting our room to what we asked for ¡V not only that- I got MORE than what I thought. I just didn¡¦t want to be too far away from main building, and had hoped for a water view with a KING. Non Smoking. I was sooooo excited!!!

 

[Eyore4Ever149]

 

[Eyore4Ever149]

Well until I figure out the problem the photos will work from this link....
http://community.webshots.com/user/labmommie2

 

[llij]

Thanks for the report and great pictures. The Flower and Garden festival at Epcot is really beautiful.

 

[Minniespal]

Great report ~ Thanx for sharing.

 

[Amirah95]

The pics look great! We went last year in May...looks like they added some new decor.

 

[Eyore4Ever149]

Hey there, I know I am due for another entry. I promise I will work on it today. I know lots of you have gone to Tom's blog regarding the GPS stuff.

I don't know if this is compatible with a car GPS, we use an IPAC with Destinator software- pretty sure you have to use Destinator. If you are interested in more info, please PM me and let me know.

 

[Eyore4Ever149]

Not only that but it turns out the room is ready NOW! Wow! Hooray! So we park the car. A super-duper friendly bellhop picks us up with his golf cart, drives up to the car, loads up our stuff and starts driving us through these neat cobblestone paths! We are almost there and realize we left the laptop in the car! And it is FL, so its still pretty warm out. He says no problem! Drives all the way BACK and lets us get our laptop, then takes us to our room where we are delighted to find we are in a corner room, facing the river- we can see the river boat go by, horse drawn carriages in the evening, the pool is around the corner, close for a swim, but no too close to hear the noise. We are thrilled!!! This is waaaaay better than our out in the middle of no where room at CBR in August 2003. Our bellhop gives us tips on when to get the best benieghs (Ill find out how to spell that) where to get a good dinner, how the ferry works, and other great info! Yeah to him!! I wanna say his name was Bill, but not for certain.

Now we take the time to unpack and get set for the whole stay. We agree on our plans to go to Epcot, ride Mission Space and have dinner in England. Off we go…..

We decide to take the bus to Epcot, since we are not park hopping or in a rush to get back to the room. The bus ride goes by quickly. Our first welcome to Epcot is FABULOUS!! We are greeted by a beautiful peacock…so of course we have to stop and take some pictures.

Then we make our way to the Guest Relations to pick up my Annual Pass. I have the reservation confirmation, with all the info in hand. But he says he has to have my license. I would understand if I was picking up a pass already in use…but I think considering I had proof of who I was and the confirmation he could have thought outside the box. This poor cast member seemed so unhappy to be there and demanded my license…Which I left back at the room. I have a credit card, but not good enough. Honestly, he was quite grumpy, rude, even if he couldn’t help, he could have been nice about it. We walk away feeling dejected. I can’t get into the park without the Annual Pass. Then it hits me! We have a Park Hopper which Tom was going to use, why don’t we just switch? The only reason I got the AP was so I could get discounts, etc. We walk back, Tom applies for my AP- gets it and we are OFF! Problem solved. I am so excited at this point I am ready to jump out of my own skin! Its beautiful mildly warm and the fauna and flora are amazing!!! We are going straight to Mission Space..but we pause for photos along the way. I can’t believe we are finally here! My heart is in my throat from excitement, I feel like I am a little kid. There is so much to look at and see in every direction. Colors, people, smiles, food, signs. Hooray!!

See Tinker Bell in the foreground of the ball? These sculptures were just so great…

Hmmm…. Not sure where our photos of Belle (in garden sculpture) are…but she was amazing! Maybe I will find them in another day’s photos. Well…here we are headed over Mission Space and then to Honey I Shrunk the Audience, this is looking towards the Countries entrence, with a view of the Monorail track. The flowers are so beautiful and in this pic you can see they have made flowers into larger flower shapes. I love photographing flowers!

http://thumb3.webshots.com/s/thumb4/5/39/23/167553923NttIez_th.jpg[Img]

[Img]http://thumb8.webshots.com/s/thumb3/5/46/48/167554648DZSdDN_th.jpg

Mission Space- 5-15minute wait for the ride. Tom loved it as always. I love other rides better, but still would go on it anytime someone else wanted to. Im a roller coaster lover at heart. I wish I could see the ride itself. I love the bins they have for storing your stuff-plenty of space for everything. I like having a job to do and its been different each time time I go on, which is fun too. “Can you believe it Tom? We are actually HERE! At Disney!” It’s all really like a dream at this point.

We head on over to Honey I Shrunk the Audience….

Kodiak says this is a good photo spot- I tried to hide the big orange sign. Guess they meant group shots!

After the show, I have never seen this by the way- where there were no lines, we flowed right into the theater just 5 min after we got there- which was sooooo much fun!!! Okay, I knew it was coming, but the snake made me jump anyway. I think this was one of my favorites actually. We toured the Rose Walk on our way over to the countries. Here are a few photos of the gorgeous roses we visited along the way…


There was also a limited time expo (just during the F&G Show) called For the Dogs and it had all the Disney dogs in it, and music from Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmations that was piped over a PA system, we didn’t go in, but we saw there was a maze for kids. The music was really fun to listen to as we walked through the rose paths.
The work they put in to these flowers and gardens is amazing. It is so beautiful, I wish I could have just stayed there forever…..Ahhhh….smelling the flowers, taking close-ups…I only posted a few of the flower pics beause there are so many.

What? Hmm? Oh, yes, my stomach is growling too. OKAY our reservation is coming up, so we should make our way over to England…..we are going to the Rose & Crown. I made reservations here because I read a fellow DIS’er said they always start their trip with dinner here. I also liked that since were were saving World Showcase for another day we could just enter the countries and not ruin another day’s experience.

When we arrived there was a woman looking for a table for 1 (good for her for traveling alone) the wait was an hour. (bad for her that she didn’t plan ahead). I stepped up to the podium and was greeted with a lovely British (authentic) accent. I figured with all the people we would have to wait a little- nope- they practically had a table with our name on it! You will see in our photos I have aquired a Tigger backpack at dinner. While this might look silly (being 30 and all) this was the BEST purchase of the entire trip because he held our camera perfectly and safely, without the camera bag. I LOVED Tigger and got lots of compliments on him. I really want to use him now that I am home, but I just know folks will think I am odd.
So! I had the Bangers and Mash (it was even fun to order, just to say the name aloud) These were the most scrump-dillyumptious sausages, it was like they were taken for a swim in butter or something, they were so fresh and red skinned mashed potatos- Oohh! What a Yummy way to start our trip! I was just yumming and oohing and aahhing through my whole dinner. We wanted Mickey bars for dessert, so we passed.

Ahh, a good first evening. We headed back to Future World, I forget if we did anything else other than walk around and appreciate that we were really here. We headed out to a bus stop and one came so quickly- holy cow! We had great bus drivers our whole trip.

When we got back to the hotel we decided a quick dip in the pool was in order, and of course took a couple evening photos of the dragon at our pool, which was the greatest. Water was perfect, we relaxed and forced ourselves to watch a little Disney TV and go to bed- early day tomorrow morning!!


Mickey Mouse called us in the morning (again thanks to advice from a DISer) I put him on speaker phone when he called. Nothing better than being woken by Mr Mickey Mouse himself! We were up around 6:45, to get down to the cafeteria~we noticed something our bellman pointed out, that all the railings are different styles from New Orleans and painted different colors. I was hungry and ready to get those fresh and hot benieghs (someone please tell me how to spell this). This was our first time eating them, but we had been told they were a must have. They were good. Not healthy, but good. Then it was off to catch a bus to Magic Kingdom (we were told don’t bother with you car on this park). We were very close to the front. I scanned for LIME green t shirts. But no luck. We saw the train tour pull up which was pretty cool. We got to do the count down too, our first trip we never made it to the park before 9:30, so this too was a new experience, the heat was comfortable too. They finally let us in and we were power walking down Main Street USA and….Oh WAIT! Who is that we see!!??? It’s OHMINNIE and OHMICKEY with their family. OHMINNIE gives OHMICKEY a “cmon, we gotta hurry” over her shoulder. He says, hey I just met these nice DIS folks. Oooh! This was such a fun way to start our trip. We discuss our tour plans and they are headed for different rides- we are now all powerwalking together. We grab a FP in fantasy land and then head over to ride Space Mountain and Buzz. Okay, I gotta brag here. This was my second time ever on Space Mnt. I got the FRONT car on the first train. I was the only one yelling, and hollering, and woohooing- it was like I was going to fall right off into the dark. OH MY GOSH this was the best!! On Buzz my husband did so awesome, even the people in the cars behind us noticed his score and commented- we have the best photo from that ride! Okay, this is really cool.
We then head over to ToonTown and hang out and wait for the train. We are off to Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Tom took lots of pics on SP. It was such a nice day, that was our first t rip on the train and it was so cool to go by the front of the park and see all the people pouring in. BTMR was great- first time I had been on this ride. I really enjoyed it and I enjoyed the early morning lines- which were so short. We decided it was time to start heading over to Fantasy land, since we had reservations at The Crystal Palace for brunch. We used our PF now and did Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan. IASW was closed as was Snow White. Then it was time to eat! The food was much better than I expected for buffet, while we did have to wait, Tom got some great pictures of the castle. I do think a better baby carriage system would do them well in this area. I was simply thrilled to meet Tigger, Pooh, Piglet, Eyore in the flesh!! We saw a few kids cry when they tried to say hello, I felt bad for them. We have wonderful pictures. This was my first character breakfast- I wish we had more. You will learn why later in our trip many reservations had to be cancelled. 
Now that we had lunch out of the way we hit the carosel, and saw Merlin the Magician anoint a King of the Relm (for an hour) man that guy had to be hot in that costume- but it sure was fun to watch. We enjoyed many of the fantasyland rides (we grabbed a FP before lunch. I loved Winnie the Pooh.
After that we decided it was time to browse the shops a bit on Main Street and head on back to the room for a nap and swim. Again, we had great luck with a bus showing up quickly when we walked down.
While the pool was calling us, so was our bed. We slept for 2 or 3 solid hours. WOW! No time for a swim, it’s off to dinner and shopping in Downtown Disney. We tried the café at Wolfgang Pucks. I have to say, it was hard getting a seat, there was a bossy MIL and large family with crying baby next to us. Poor little one looked so tired. Our food was cold. I would’t go there again. Did I mention we wanted to shop??? Well boy did I shop!!! A beautiful watch, some picture frames, a stuffed Eyore, stationary, and because I didn’t shop in the parks and waited, I got 10% off with my AP at World of Disney. Well, the night was young. We decided to catch the fireworks at Epcot. We jumped on a bus, with the BEST driver, he told jokes, involved the passengers- he was Spanish and hysterical. Just before picking up new passengers he would say “Look at these poor souls, they don’t know what they are in for” then the doors would open and the new people would hear everyone laughing. He dropped us off at The Beach Club Resort, which we cut through to get to the Boardwalk, it was neat to see another resort. Another first. The boardwalk was a nice surprise. There were people riding surrey bikes and just walking and getting painted faces, buying popcorn, and lines for ice cream and fudge. We walked up to World Show Case and stood on the bridge and I thought we had a nice view, with little effort, I bought 2 light up superballs and had fun, you can see lots of photos of the fireworks on my link to photos. Sure wish I could figure out why I can post.

As we were walking back I had developed a bad blister from my flip flops, a nice woman gave me a band aid and a couple extra for later- she noticed me limping. How nice is that?

Ahhh…..a great day. I loved every moment.

 

[tkeating]

Actually the Disney GPS coordinates I posted on my blog (Tom Keating Blog ) works with any GPS device. I created several file formats on my blog so you can import them. (i.e. Garmin, PocketStreets, OziExplorer, Magellan, Geocaching, and .CSV text/Excel format)

The exact blog entry is here:
http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/archives/my-favorite-disney-gps-coordinates.html

If you can't import the files (such as a car navigation system), then as long as you can type the longitude and latititude coordinates in, you can just open the .CSV file in Excel and print it out, then type them into your car navigation system.

Of course, most of the coordinates are within Disney World parks, so unless you plan on driving your GPS-equiped car through the throngs of Disney pedestrians, I don't think this will be an issue.

Some of the coordinates include some restrooms, restaurants, and even entrances to the rides themselves, which may help you navigator the park quicker (especially if on Mike's fast-paced Disney tour or other FastPass-centric tours).

Of course using GPS may not be useful for those of you that know Disney parks like the back of your hand, but very useful for those that can't read a map or for those that like their gadgets (I'm the latter).

I especially liked using the GPS to find my parked car after the mass exodus after Illuminations. I was one of the first cars out of there due to the use of GPS!

you can read my interesting blog entry about that here:
Disney World Blog Report - Dude Where's My Car?

 

[Eyore4Ever149]

Day 3 at Disney World (but really our second full day here in the parks- so does that mean it's day 2?)

We are off to Animal Kingdom!! This is the first time we have been to this park and we have been warned that Kilamanjaro safaris offers a very long wait if we don't get there quickly.

We took these at the second rope in the middle of the park before they continued to let us walk (we actually were greeted by a huge bus carrying all the classic Disney characters on safari in appropriate clothes) I guess we didn't take our camera out for that, but here is the tree of life.

By the way, Im sorry these are all thumbnails, but it's the only way I can post them on here.

Here are some of the animals on the safari, we were on very quickly because we did this first thing in the morning on a EMH morning.

This was fun to see the animals, but the story line got a little old I would have preferred a more quiet ride and just appreciated all the animals along the way. Feel free to check out the top link to my photo page to see all the animals.

Giraffe

There was a beautiful Lowland Gorilla to see as soon as we got off the Safari Truck and walked up the path a little bit.

Then it was off to Dino Land USA. The weather was perfect, not too hot and not cool, and no people in this area of the park yet.

Here we are on a ride- Triceritop Spin in Dino land- you can see in the enlarged photo that the people in the dino behind us are looking at our camera.

Dinosaur was closed for rehab while we were there. So Midevil Whirl was the only other ride in this area really. There are games for kids, but nothing easy to win really. We found "Whirl" to be very tight and not enjoyable. I am a size 10-12, so I don't think I'm outrageously heavy, but wouldn't say Im slender, but I would think a adult guy and girl would be comfortable, I left rubbing my hips where the seat cut into me. I passed on a second ride. The seats seem made for smaller bodies.

After DinoLand USA we decide to grab a bite to eat and then we head over to see the Lion King performance, I can't think of the name right now. We got good seats, not too far up in the bleachers. There was a little girl and her Dad sitting next to us. I had Disney stickers in my pocket, so I took them out and offered them to the little girl. She snathed them out of my hand so fast it startled me, and didn't think to say thank you. Her father tried to make her, but it seemed an effort too great for her. That was the last time I tried to offer a gift to a child, honestly, it scared me that she looked so sweet and was so ferocious. I wouldn't call myself a kid person, so I was probably more sensitive to the situation than say a Mom with kids of her own. As for the show...
I was expecting great things since it seemed so similiar to Cirque du Soliel in photos. It is a great photo op I guess. But as 2 adults we were prett disapointed.

After the show we had a Goofy siting that was pretty exciting, actually I saw Minnie, Mickey, Stitch, Goofy, Donald. But only took a few pics from a distance.

I thought these signs were a great photo op..

After that we decided it was time to cool down at Kali River Rapids, I know we had grabbed a FP earlier for this, so we shot right past the hour plus long wait- I felt guilty for passing all those folks standing in line. Even with our FP we waited about 15-20 minutes.

Well...I'll have to finish our trip to AK another day, as Im getting pretty sleepy tonight.

But our evening plans can't be beat! Come back and learn how we met up with 10 other DISers!