Solo Whirlwind Weekend - Day 2! Epcot, MK & MNSSHP

[christygobar]

Cast of Character: (Yep. Singular. )
Me – Solo Adventurer…err….traveler

Pre-Trip

So I’m not exactly what you would call a Disney junkie. I enjoy the Dis, but I don’t live it. But what can I say? I got sucked in to another weekend of not only Free Dining, but what really drew me in last year – the Food & Wine Festival. I went last year on this same weekend.

So yeah, hi. Seven Deadly Sins? If you’re missing gluttony, you’ll have no problem finding it from Sept 28th – Oct 2nd in the form of foods such as cheese, pastries and of course - wine. Walking around the parks all day makes it all nil and void, right?

I must mention that I am avid Weight Watcher and for obvious reasons am not counting it this weekend.

Soo, here’s the background: I’m 28, female, traveling solo. Never even gave anyone the CHANCE to go with me. I have loved the idea of going somewhere alone, but every time I’ve tried it someone has crashed my party. This time it’s not happening. Plus, it’s great practice for next year’s vacation. (See ticker) Because of that, I will not be returning to Orlando for a verrrry long time.

There’s your background on me. Here’s my trip plan:

I’m staying at the Swan one night and at POFQ the remainder. The Swan was a last minute addition. I had originally booked a super late flight, but was able to change it to get a whole extra day for no change fee from the airline. So I thought I’d splurge and stay at a hotel I’ve admired since I was a kid.

Why is it a whirlwind weekend? I’m on one of the first flights on Thursday and one of the first flights back home on Monday morning. My original trip was supposed to be getting in Thursday night and leaving early Monday. Once I step off that plane on Monday, I’m getting in my car and going directly to my office for a full day of work. HA! I’ll probably be there by my normal time of 9:00 a.m.

I don’t do Disney Transportation. I’m impatient. I want to be there 10 minutes ago. So for that I rent a car. Love the time savings and love the flexibility. Plus, it’s cheap. (Yes, I know. Not as cheap as Disney Transportation!)

So here is what you should look forward to in my trip reports, coming to a Dis near you in about 1 1/2 weeks.

Three TS meals:
Lunch – Olivia’s Café
Dinner – Grand Floridian Café
Dinner – Kona Café

3 F&W Festival Events:
Food & Wine Pairing at the Coral Reef Restaurant
Wine & Cheese Pairing at Ariel’s
Sweet Sunday’s

One tour:
DiveQuest

And one special event:
Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party

The parks I plan on visiting:
Epcot (my trip will be centered here. If you want to know why, you’ve obviously skimmed )
Magic Kingdom
And *gasp* Universal Studios (the original - not IOA)

Be on the lookout in just over a week for my actual trip reports! I’ll update when I have time when I get back home. I'll continue by replying in this same thread.

-Christy

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Have a great trip! Solo adventures are the best!!! Can't wait to hear about DiveQuest!

 

[OhMari]

Have a great solo adventure. I'l be doing some solo events myself.

I've moved you over to the new Pre-Trip board. Give me or another moderator a PM when you return and you can change your title and we will move you to Trip Reports Board.

 

[christygobar]

I am back (*sniff sniff*), and will update in a few days.....

It was GREAT! (But did you expect anything less??)

 

[christygobar]

A Solo’s Whirlwind Weekend

Day 1 of 4 – Travel & Universal Studios

Cast of Character: (Yep. Singular. )
Me – Solo Adventurer…err….traveler; 28/female from Dallas

Well, when we left off I was a week out and ready to roll. Now all I have are a weekend of memories and a tummy full of food!

My morning began around 4:30 when the alarm went off and I did a literal jump out of bed. I was definitely “too excited to sleeeeeepppp” the night before

My flight was at 6:45 and was scheduled to get into Orlando at 10:15. The flight was about half empty, but when 6:40 came along and they hadn’t even closed the cabin door yet we knew SOMETHING was wrong. The mechanic in the cockpit was a clue also! They came over the mic and said that the power was out on some flight instrument and that they needed to get a generator up there. Luckily it only took 20 minutes to fix and the problem wasn’t with the engine We were in the air around 7:15 and actually landed right at 10:15. I had rented a car with Thrifty, which is not actually on airport property. I took the shuttle, got my car (a silver PT cruiser – apparently this is considered a compact car ) and my map and headed on the road.

It was 12:30 before I pulled into Universal Studios (um yeah – I got lost going, plus I stopped at Publix for some water and fruit). Now I had forgotten this was the case but the one thing US has going for it is covered garage parking! It is a pretty long walk into CityWalk and then the parks. I decided to wait on CityWalk until later in the afternoon, and go straight into the park.

I had pre-purchased my ticket online and basically did an electronic “will call.” When you get to the park, you follow the instructions for the Electronic Ticketing Machine where you swipe the CC you bought the ticket with, enter your confirmation # and voila! Your ticket pops out. It was better than holding onto my ticket ahead of time.

I did spend the extra $15 to buy the Express Pass. I used it 3x the whole day. Even then I probably didn’t NEED to, but it came in really handy on Earthquake. It was not scanned at all for B2TF or Shrek, but it was scanned for Earthquake.

I walked into the park and immediately headed to the right, passing Terminator 3D for later in the day. I don’t offhand remember the name of this street (all of USO’s streets are named), but as I was walking down it, there were literally less than 10 people walking it! I don’t know if the crowds at USO have permanently decreased since IOA opened? I know that the time of year and day of the week had something to do with it, but I remember being in high school and this particular street being PACKED. I absolutely loved it now. It set the tone for my entire day because I knew I would have no waits for rides!

I was headed for Back to the Future and MIB, but first was sidetracked by ET. I’d forgotten this was a pretty cute ride.

THEN I went to Back to the Future. I know that on the USO board that many people don’t like it because 1) it’s outdated and 2) it’s jerky. Yeah, it’s definitely both, but it IS a 20 year old movie! So of course it’s old. And I like jerky rides I think this ride embodies what I love about this park - it's such an 80s/90s movie flashback for me. I did use the express pass here, and because of that I went immediately into one of the pre-show rooms without stopping.

As it is, the ride was being shut down permanently about 2 days later. I’m glad I got to ride it one more time.

Now time for the ultimate of my favorite rides ever (even over WDW rides) – MIB. I fought my way through the electronic lockers (what a pain!), threw my stuff in there and headed for the single riders line. It wasn’t even a line! It was just a walk through and walk-on.

If you haven’t been here before, they have your typical cubed lockers but instead of paying a quarter and getting a traditional key, it's computerized. You go to the computer kiosk, “check out” a locker, give them your thumbprint and it assigns you a locker. Your thumbprint has to match in order for you to “check in” your locker later on. The reason being you have to use these is because you cannot take anything on Men In Black at all.

I rode the ride about 3x and then figured I probably needed to go pick up my stuff from the lockers. As it was, I probably should have ridden ONE more time because my section of lockers was broken when I got there. The CM was already working on it when I got there. It took a good 10-15 minutes for him to fix the machine and then get the 3 people ahead of me to their lockers. Annoying.

I headed on my way and started walking again. Normally I would have ridden Jaws but I wasn’t feeling the love for the ride today. The one thing I dislike about this park is the use of fire/explosions in this ride and also in Twister. I refuse to be on the front row in Twister because it felt like my eyebrows were singed the first time I did that! I think Earthquake isn't so bad to me because the fires aren't as close. Whatever - go with my excuses here

Earthquake was next. At first I overshot the Express Pass line because it’s hard to see. I must’ve walked up just as the previous show headed inside because it was about 20 minutes before the door opened up. That was the ONLY ride I waited for all weekend. I met a great family who was in line in front of me. Their little boy kept insisting that I sit beside him when we got inside and sat on the train! He seemed like a great kid and all 3 were in high spirits. If you were the Mom or the Dad there, I’d love to hear it.

After Earthquake I continued heading down the road. I skipped Mummy (not a fan of roller coasters, nor was I ever interested in seeing the movie), but it was fun watching the pharaohs on stilts walking up and down the street following families and teenagers.

I grabbed a Starbucks and a chocolate chip cookie and sat on a bench at the time that the Madagascar truck came rolling down the road. I watched them pass, and then got up in line for Shrek. GREAT 4-D show and lots of fun. I don’t think you can go wrong with any show based on Shrek

Next was Terminator. I was back to the front of the park already! It was about 4:00 now and I was trying to kill a bit of time before it was a good time to go eat dinner. Now this is a show that I think it outdated a bit. 3D/4D always gives me a bit of a headache and then this show which goes back and forth between real people on stage and 3D….it’s a bit much.

Before heading out to Citywalk for dinner, I walked through the I Love Lucy exhibit and store, and strolled through the main shop at the front of the park. It was 4:30, but I felt pretty good that I was done for the day.

I walked out of the park and was planning on going to Bubba Gumps for dinner. I was still killing a little time so I walked out in the shops for awhile. My first souvenir purchase was a Vera Bradley bag at Fresh Produce. I couldn’t believe I gave in. hee hee.

Dinner at Bubba Gumps was great. I sat at the bar, ordered a Lava Flow (a strawberry pina colada) and the stuffed shrimp. Yummy! For a chain restaurant, it’s not bad food. A little overpriced but that’s because of their primo tourist locations I’m sure.

After dinner I headed to my car and drove the drive to WDW (I know – you’re thinking “it’s about time!”). I checked in at my one and only night at the Swan. Beautiful hotel. I hope to stay here again someday. Totally not worth the extra I paid for resort view though I had hoped to enjoy some balcony time but the lovebugs were the nuisance which killed that hope.

It was time to rest up because tomorrow, it’s checking in at POFQ, heading to Epcot and the first of 3 days in WDW!

 

[christygobar]

A Solo’s Whirlwind Weekend

Day 2 of 4 – Epcot, MK & MNSSHP

Cast of Character: (Yep. Singular. )
Me – Solo Adventurer…err….traveler; 28/female from Dallas

Everything else I've written up about this trip:
Dining Reviews - http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1243296
You too can go solo - http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1241614

This morning, I woke up bright and early to check out of the Swan and to check into POFQ. I knew I needed to check in early so that I could have my resort card ready for my first meal and to get into the parks. So I wanted to be at POFQ between 8 and 8:30 to pre-check in and leave my luggage and get my KTTW card

I ate the breakfast buffet at the Garden Grove Café at the Swan this morning, just for the sake of easy. Checked out of the Swan and headed directly to the French Quarter.

Since it was pretty early in the morning, there was no line to check in and I just walked right up (after grabbing all the park maps and guidebooks I could get my hands on, of course!). Imagine my surprise when she said the magic words – “your room is already ready!” Yay! I didn’t want to hit a park just yet this morning because I had plans to get to DTD when it first opened and then enjoy lunch at Old Key West. So I went directly to my room in building 7 (3rd floor).

Building 7 is nice and close proximity to the river. It is also the closest building to Riverside. So it’s pretty outlying, but the one thing I do love about this resort is the calm and quiet nature. I got some great pictures of the river right around my building.

These were, of course, non-smoking rooms.

Lovebugs definitely were everywhere in the corridors, on the railings and on the doors. Ick. I also noticed the lack of geckos I think because it wasn’t quite so hot. (I love these lil guys!) They showed up later though.

I hung out in my room until about 9:30, made some coffee, read my guidebooks and park maps and then headed out to DTD. I had to make a pretty big purchase at Basin (love their stuff!) and then I spent way more at Ghirardelli than I planned on baking chocolates and assortment bags.

I also wanted to get some stuff at Goofy’s Candy Co, but decided against it. It all looked so good though!

I had wanted to go directly from DTD to lunch at Olivia’s, but I had all this chocolate in my car now and there was no way it was going to melt! So I drove back by POFQ, dropped everything off and headed to lunch at Olivia’s Café.

Lunch was wonderful of course (see my link at the top for my restaurant reviews) and now it was time to get the show on the road and head to Epcot. At 3:00, I had a Coral Reef F&W tasting, so I had about 3 hours to ride a couple of rides and take it all in.

I think I headed directly to Soarin once I got in the park to grab a fastpass, knowing that the lines here would be insane. I love this ride, but I guess I figured that the newness of it would have worn off by now and there wouldn’t be HOUR long waits during the day!!!! Apparently I was wrong. So I grabbed a fastpass, but the time was for around 2:30-3:30….cutting it too close to my F&W tasting.

I had never in my 10 times of going to WDW in the past ever ridden the Land boat ride. There was no wait so I thought that I’d go ahead and hop on. I was sorely disappointed until we got to the greenhouse. That was pretty cool stuff! Does anyone know if this is all just for show or do they actually use these crops? I especially like how they show you how they grow the mickey shaped pumpkins.

Now I head for a Christy first – Mission Space. I would never ever in my right mind ride this ride when it was a spinning only ride. But once they opened Green/Orange teams – I was on it. So a green pass I get and I head right on (see, this is where I don’t understand the lines for Soarin when Mission Space and Test Track have no waits at ALL! But I digress).

No wait and I go on. With a lady and her son who unfortunately decide that this entire ride just is a little out of their league. They felt like they had let me down! As it was, I’m kind of glad they didn’t ride because this being my first ride, there were some curse words coming out of my mouth Oops! It was awesome, but definitely nerve-wracking, so I went immediately and rode it again so I could enjoy it more. Now this is a GREAT ride. And helloooooo Gary Sinise

No, I will never ever ride the Orange team version

I crossed over to Test Track and rode a couple times in a row here as well. Love having the single rider line at this ride. They need more single rider lines in all parks! I’ve always thoroughly enjoyed this ride.

It was almost time for my Coral Reef tasting, so I headed to the Living Seas. I wanted to see the tank ahead of time knowing that tomorrow I would be inside of it! I took my time, looking at as much as I could and got really excited about it. It was pretty crowded though. I am thinking the lines appeared to be for Crush – not sure. More about DiveQuest later. I think that the new Nemo ride will be a great addition.

I headed to the F&W tasting, which you can read about in my dining reviews

That was all for Epcot today…..it was now about 4:30 and time to head to Magic Kingdom for MNSSHP. I drove over to the MK parking lot and took the monorail inside. I didn’t dress up today, but I wore an orange t-shirt with pumpkins on it (Old Navy) so I’d be somewhat festive. At this time of the evening, there were already CMs standing outside the monorail station making sure that those of us coming in had tickets to the Halloween party. I guess they were trying to keep out other guests as possible at this point in the day since there was only a little over an hour left until standard closing.

Wristbands and trick-or-treat bags were being handed out at this point at the front of the park also. It was nice to not have to pick them up after 6 like I thought. I was set! I headed immediately for Space Mountain. When I was here last year, my mom was really sick on our Magic Kingdom day, so I didn’t get to ride much of anything. As it was, I still didn’t ride too much tonight but only enough of what I wanted to So Space Mountain, then Buzz Lightyear, the Indy Speedway, over to Big Thunder Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean. Crazily enough – that all about made me happy!

LOVE what they have done to POTC. The beginning is amazing and I love how the drop was more of a suspense than it ever was in the past! This makeover was perfect. Love love love it.

I stopped at a couple of trick or treat stands and grabbed some candy. Not much chocolate though. The lines were super long, like everyone had said but it does go quickly. I mean really – they’re just throwing a handful of candy in your bag and you go on your way. It doesn’t take long to do that.

Let me tell you the number of Jack Sparrows I saw dressed up tonight. If they had an “official” Jack Sparrow out and about, it would have been tough to pick him out of a crowd!! The greatest costume I saw was a Deviled Egg. He had a felt egg on, devil ears and a tail. Very cute!!

I headed to Main Street now to grab a seat for the 8:30 parade. As I was doing so, I saw the Villains show at the castle, which looked really cute. I didn’t stand and watch it though. After grabbing a chocolate croissant from the MK Bakery, I copped a squat on the ground. I was hoping for French toast loaf but that must just be a morning thing.

The nice thing about being solo is just being able to park yourself down between families. I got a really nice seat on the curb at the front of main street by doing this.

The lighting on Main Street for MNSSHP is really neat. Flying ghosts and witches, colorful buildings…..very fun. I probably waited about 30 minutes before the headless horseman came running down the street. I was so busy trying to grab a picture that I didn’t get a good look at him! As it turns out, my picture stinks too. Boo. That’s what you get for trying to take a picture of a headless horseman, I guess

The Boo To You parade is awesome and a great change from SpectroMagic (which is good, but after you have seen it 9-10 times, you’re ready for a change).

I moved seats to the very front of main street to get ready for the fireworks. I like to take a spot which faces the castle, instead of sitting on the side of the street on Main Street. Further back you just get to see the bigger picture. Of course, you have another half an hour or so between the parade and the fireworks, so I people watched for awhile. Talked to the glow-light CM, talked to the people around me…..even some of the candy started coming to US now! CMs were coming around with the trick-or-treats. Even by standing in only 2 lines, I left with a bag full of candy.

At this point, I needed to get up and use the restroom before the crowds for the fireworks got bigger and I lost my great spot. I started walking towards the restrooms across from Exhibition hall when I noticed someone walking to my right. I glanced but didn’t pay attention. But I got the feeling he was still with me, so I turned and looked at a young blonde (good looking!) guy dressed in a tux and sunglasses. At this point, I was feeling pretty good and I go “well hellooooo!” because it was obvious he was walking with me. Instead of answering, I hear a “hello” on my OTHER side! This was yet another young and good looking guy dressed also in the tux and sunglasses. Obviously I was part of something here *giggle.* I think I said something to the effect of “now guys, are you following me?”

The one who talks said “well, we thought we would walk with you for awhile.”

And I laugh and say “into the women’s restroom?”

I caught him off-guard, I think. “Well. Uh. Not that far.” (I started laughing). “My friend here would like to offer you something.”

(Figuring they were undertakers at this point) I turn to the blonde one and say “yes? What would you like to offer me?” (I mean c’mon….I was being fun and flirtatious here….it was kind of fun!).

He stared me down for a minute, started unbuttoning his tux coat and all of a sudden says “Would you like a button?”

I died laughing. All the buttons were either wedding, birthday or congratulations. I said “well, yes, I’d love one but I am not celebrating anything! So I guess I will take one that says congratulations.”

He took it off and handed it to me and said “by the way…..congratulations!”

“On what? My new button?”

They wished me a good evening and I headed on my way.

I claimed my seat later again and watched Hallowishes before heading back to POFQ for the night. It had been a long day and I was going to get up and do it again tomorrow morning.

Coming up: Day 2…..more Epcot and DiveQuest!