Solo trip report 9/30 - 10/6/2007

[BobWerner]

Starting the trip report. I'm going to try and do this on a day by day basis with one day per post. With that said....

Day one 9/30/07 - Heading to the World for my 26th trip.
Day starts early at 3:30 am so I can make a 7am flight from TYS (McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, TN). My flight goes wheels up about 10 minutes late, however the flight lands on-time. No worrying about the bags as I have arrainged DME and put the tags on them. I get to All Star Movies around 10 am. Rooms not ready yet so they give me a piece of paper with a phone number on it to call later in the day to find out where I will be sleeping and showering. I meet up with Lilia and got the fridge which was very handy. I switch it to my name and had the folks in baggage hold it for me. More on that later.
At around 11:30, I'm headed to a park. I like to start my trip with a visit to the Magic Kingdom. I have to ride BTMRR as it closes on 10/1 for several weeks. For some reason it seems there are more people here at the "World" then I expected. Families with their school age children are all over. I never expected the parks to be as busy as they are.
Also, on the first day, I see the 3pm parade. My goal was to see this since I hadn't done the parade on my last trip. First day, two goals met. And, guess what? Yes, I rode the Haunted Mansion AGAIN. I didn't see any of the "dream squad," however I saw many people with the dream fastpasses and the winner of a night a Cinderella's Castle.
After the parade, I went and rode Monster Laugh Floor, Stitch's Great Escape, and the Tomorrow Land Transit.
My 6pm dinner at the Crystal Palace went well. I'll have pictures up soon. With an early start and another early start on 10/1, I head back to my room after calling the number on the paper. I found out I was in room 2703 in the Mighty Ducks building. It had a great view of the pool.
After unpacking and getting all of my stuff in order, I made a wakeup call for 6:30 am so I could do the Backstage Safari.
Day 2, coming up.

 

[BobWerner]

Day two 10/1 starts with a wake up call from Stitch. No sleepy sleepy. Ok, that's annoying.
I get to AK around 8:10 and ask guest relations where to meet the tour group at. I'm pointed to a planter outside the gate and told that I would be "picked up" at 8:30. 8:30 AM sharp, and I do mean SHARP!, Anita walks out and sets us up with our hearing aids and we go inside the AK for a quick tour. We proceed behind the scenes to board two vans as there were 13 people on our tour. Nice small group. First stop? The pens where they keep the Rhinos and we get to pet a VERY LARGE white rhino. Some people are afraid of this animal, and I can't blame them. This thing is HUGE! Elephant pen next with a very nice CM named Brad who talks for a good time about the care they give these big animals. We then head to the vet area and see where and how they treat the animals. The kitchen is next. Very clean and everything they feed the animals is measured to the gram. Extreemly interesting, IMHO. Then it's off to our "special meet" with a guest. The guest is a Tarantula. Very cool, but could be scary and was disconcerting to some people. They had snacks and bottled water available. We get our pins and start heading back. This is a very good tour and Anita is the best. We learned about the DAKcycles (bicycles they use at the AK). You can't video or take pictures. We did do the safari without the normal audio where they point out the feeding areas. The animals are on an 80% visibility schedule. Which means you should see the animal about 80% of the time. Two hidden mickeys are pointed out too. One I never even knew about. There are a couple places that the "hearing aids" cut out during the tour. Mostly inside the buildings due to RF interference from the lights. The tour ends real close to 11:30 and I get some lunch and head to Epcot.
Ride Test Track, try out some food at the F&W fest. Very nice exhibits. Ride Mission Space (the non-spinning side, yes I'm a chicken). After a long day and two early wake ups, I'm spent and head back to Movies for some really needed sleep. I set a wake up for 7:00 as I'm scheduled for an 8:30 breakfast at O'hana. Day 3 soon.

 

[BobWerner]

Day 3 Starts out cloudy and looks like rain. I'm scheduled for breakfast at Ohana's and a 3pm tee time at Osprey Ridge. The food at Ohana's is really good. I even like the sausage link. The fruit punch mix is too die for. Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Goofy are your hosts. They do a parade through the place for the kids.
As I sit there, the rain starts and I ask Stitch if it rains like that on his planet and get a "raspberry" as a reply. Very cute. And no wakey wakey... What's up wit dat?
After breakfast I head to MGM. As I'm walking towards Narnia, a cast member tells me "someone is waiting for you at the entrance." When I get to the line (is five people considered a line?) a person in a really nice white suit walks up to me and says, "you're in the right place at the right time. You've won a dream fast pass as part of the Year of a Million Dreams." He points out that since RNRC isn't working that I could use that tab for ToT. WOW! My third day and I win a dream. How fun. Well, as I mentioned, I'm scheduled for a 3pm tee time, so I leave the park around 12 and head to OR. Well, the rain hits as I get out of the cab. The person working the counter says they can let me play, but I wouldn't get a rain check or any guarantee of finish. So, rather then waste $65 on not getting to play, I just say, no thanks and get back in a cab and put my clubs up and head back to MGM. Indy, cars, the wizard of oz, sounds dangerous, pizza planet, muppet vision, the backstage tour. Yup, did it all EXCEPT ToT. I gave those tabs away as that's the only ride at WDW I won't get on.
Day 3 ends with a trip back to MK so I can see Spectro Magic and Wishes.
Day 4 tomorrow.

 

[Barbi]

Sounds like a great trip! Some day I might do a solo trip.
Thanks for posting.






















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[BobWerner]

This was my SeaWorld day. I had bought a ticket through AAA. I had called Mears and scheduled a 7am pickup. So, I have to get up at 5am EWWW! This is vacation, you're supposed to sleep in, right? So, Stitch again wakes me up. No sleepy, sleepy! Ok, that's REALLY annoying now. I shower and eat breakfast and head to the front of the resort and get there about 6:50. Exactly 7am, the Mears shuttle arrives and I get on. They have a few more stops as there's some people headed to Discovery cove and Universal studios. $16 round trip (8 each way). Not bad and they drop you off 1/2 block from the entrance. I saw the "Lynx" sign and it stops, it seems like, a mile from the entrance. You'd have to walk through the entire parking lot to get where you need to be. Not convienent at all. IMHO it's worth the extra $13 to take Mears as the shuttle will pick you up in the exact place they drop you off. However, you MUST call them 2 hours before you want to leave. Not too hard if you plan right. I got to the park one hour before rope drop. I see all the shows, feed and pet some stingrays and dolphins. You can feed sea lions and boy are they NOISY! Very vocal animals. $3 for a dish of fish at each feeding station. I sat in the "splash zone" at every show. The dolphin show you really don't get too wet, but at "Believe" with Shamu, you get positively SOAKED. The clyde and semore show was dark while I was there. I heard they were putting in a new stage, so there's probably going to be a new show there soon. I left about 3:30 pm and headed back to WDW. I went to Epcot for more Test Track and Animal Kingdom to ride Mount Everest. WOW! Everest really messed with me. When I got off I felt like I had been on a three day drunk. I could barely stand up. After an early start, I headed back to my resort around 8pm to finally get some sleep. No early wake up call.

 

[BobWerner]

I planned on doing MNSSHP today, and as was recommended, I stayed away from the Magic Kingdom until about 6pm. Since I went to bed about 8:30 pm the night before (I was about to fall over from being so tired) I woke up about 7am. Yes! Almost 12 hours of sleep. I feel rejuvinated. I take a shower and eat breakfast. I'm in no hurry today. So, since AK opens at 9am, I figure I'll head over there and do the Safari ride first thing. I get to the gates about 8:20 or so. They pick some kids from the crowd and ask "do you want to get in 15 minutes early?" Sure, we're going to say, "no." Well, they let us in the park at 8:45 and I get to a rope leading to Africa where I have to wait for the National Anthem and Mickey to great us. A bus shows up with Minnie, Goofy and Pluto to give us our "check list" for the day at AK. Mickey then comes out at the tree of life and starts our day. I follow the bus down the path leading to the Safari ride and get in line. We were stopped by a giraffe that blocked the road for a short while. Actually, that was pretty cool. After the ride I do some of the walk through paths. I then head to Rafiki's Planet watch. Nice place and has AC and character meets. I really don't remember what time I left there as I don't remember.
I do know that I got to the MK around 6pm to do MNSSHP. This is a NOT TO BE MISSED event. The parade is fantastic and so are the fireworks. Every ride is open. The Haunted Mansion is especially spooked up for this event. Wow, can Disney do an event right! I am really glad I did this and I got a fantastic video of the parade and the fireworks.
I leave around midnight to head back to Movies.

 

[BobWerner]

I'm scheduled for a 4pm eat and meet with some folks from this board at Liberty Tree Tavern. I had previously scoped out the location as I had never eaten there before. I get to MK around 9ish and head for some rides. Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Space Mountain (my one and only ride this trip as normal), Stitch, Laugh Floor.
I start making my way towards Liberty Tree Tavern and stop and watch the 3pm parade again. After the parade, I make my way toward the Tavern and see some folks with lime green on. I know this is the DISers as they had mentioned this is what they'd be wearing. I introduce myself and we go inside to get our table. What fun I had! I didn't even realize that this was a character meal. Chip, Dale, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto are your hosts for this one. Food again is served family style. Turkey, ham and roast beef. Very good.
After dinner since today is a Epcot late day, I head there and ride Soarin'. Definate WOW factor on this one. I think my tennis shoes had shrunk from the rain earlier in the week as my feet were absouletly killing me when I left. I headed back to Movies for my trip home. I started packing and got everything together for the next morning. I set a wake up for 9am as you have to be out by 11am.

 

[BobWerner]

I wake up about 8am. Since I had eaten all my cereal and used everything that I had bought from http://www.wegoshop.com I go to the food court for breakfast. My feet are really tired/hurting and I had developed a blister on my big toes. Note to self, bring two pairs of shoes in case one gets wet. While heading to eat I notice the airline checkin line was, oh, about 8 miles long. Yes, that's an exageration, but crimany there were a lot of people checking out. I was scheduled for DME at 3:30 pm. I eat breakfast and head back to the room around 8:50 and get my 9am wake up call again from Stitch. It's really time to change that recording. I finish packing and have a baggage cart and bring all the stuff from my room and check my two bags and put my carryon in storage. I didn't get finished that until after noon. I had wanted to go to another park to waste some time, but with the foot problems I was having I decided against it. I just hung out at movies and got on DME at 3:30 for the ride to the airport. I know now why you have to leave three hours early. They made about four stops on the way. All the All Stars and Coronado Springs. The bus had two empty seats when we finally made our way to MCO. Delta is the second stop. I had enough time for lunch so I ate big as I wouldn't arrive home until 10:40 pm. Flight arrived in Atlanta 10 mins early, so I head to the gate and get into Knoxville right on time. Get my bags and head back to my truck. $42 later, I'm heading home after a stop at Waffle House (they're always open) for some dinner. I made it home safe a little after midnight.
I had another fantastic time at the world. Thanks to Coleen at MouseFanTravel for arrainging the trip. I'm actually thinking of going again in 2008 as my brother and his family want to go and bring me along as the "tour guide." Hum, you think they'll have trouble convincing me to go? Ummm. No...
Thanks for reading this and look for pictures on my website. http://www.robwerner.com

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

I'm a solo disneyer, so I always love seeing solo reports! How cool that you won a dream! The Backstage Safari is a lot of fun- it sounds like it changes each time a little, too! (We got to pet the rhino the first time I did it, but not the 2nd)

Thanks for the report!

 

[123Disney]

Great report! Sounds like you had a fun trip.

 

[LLWDW]

Thanks for the report. I enjoy reading trip reports, especially ones about solo trips and especially ones I can read in one sitting.