The AutoTrain, Disney World, and MORE report! Picture-heavy. **Final Update 1/5**

[mermaid764]

Wow those crowds are crazy...lucky you guys were able to get everything done earlier when you did.

Looking forward to more

 

[ilovepete]

Enjoying reading your report.

 

[debf]

the crowds. You guys got a lot done in such a short time.

 

[mrsksomeday]

Thank you so much for posting this picture. Bill is unable to ride Splash Mountain and it is so great for him to get to see this view.

I have probably asked you this before but I am again, what camera were you using? The pictures are fantastic and so clear.

Looks like you had a great MK day, so sorry you got sunburned and that the crowds were so big. I just love your TR's you look like you are having so much fun!!

 

[DISNEY CRAZY 69]

Great trip report and beautiful photos. Thanks for sharing.

 

[nycdisneygal]

Am enjoying your trip report!! WE leave in 2 days!

Your family seems soo nice!! I love that your mom comes with you and your DD calls her other DGM from WDW every day and texts her aunt!!! And your DH carrying her... and helping people on the bus!!

Ok... gotta finish reading!

 

[ddstratton]

Wow those crowds are crazy...lucky you guys were able to get everything done earlier when you did.

Looking forward to more

It was nuts! We really did get a lot done in the morning, though, so it's all good.

Enjoying reading your report.

Thank you! More coming up shortly.

the crowds. You guys got a lot done in such a short time.

Those crowds WERE scary!! The fairly empty park in the morning was a treat, though.

Thank you so much for posting this picture. Bill is unable to ride Splash Mountain and it is so great for him to get to see this view.

I have probably asked you this before but I am again, what camera were you using? The pictures are fantastic and so clear.

Looks like you had a great MK day, so sorry you got sunburned and that the crowds were so big. I just love your TR's you look like you are having so much fun!!

I was hoping to get a good shot at the top of the drop, and it didn't come out too bad at all. I was using a Canon PowerShot SX10is. Love it.

We really did have a great morning at Magic Kingdom. We left Crystal Palace pretty much just as the park was opening, so we were a little bit ahead of the crowds at that time. It was great!

I'll have another update soon.

Great trip report and beautiful photos. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you!

Am enjoying your trip report!! WE leave in 2 days!

Your family seems soo nice!! I love that your mom comes with you and your DD calls her other DGM from WDW every day and texts her aunt!!! And your DH carrying her... and helping people on the bus!!

Ok... gotta finish reading!

Thank you!

Cool -- you're on your trip now!! Hope you have a great time.

 

[mickeystoontown]

My word! Your "Oh My" moment was certainly a big one. I've seen crowds like that in Fantasyland before. It's almost claustrophic I wonder what was up with all the people coming into the park that time of the day? That seems so unusual to me.

Good to hear that you were able to take a break that afternoon. We used to never take mid-day breaks but it's been so darned hot these last few trips that we simply have to.

It's been a while since we've eaten at a Sizzler. As a matter of fact, I think the last time was in Orlando.

 

[ddstratton]

My word! Your "Oh My" moment was certainly a big one. I've seen crowds like that in Fantasyland before. It's almost claustrophic I wonder what was up with all the people coming into the park that time of the day? That seems so unusual to me.

Good to hear that you were able to take a break that afternoon. We used to never take mid-day breaks but it's been so darned hot these last few trips that we simply have to.

It's been a while since we've eaten at a Sizzler. As a matter of fact, I think the last time was in Orlando.

Yup. Lots o' people. Yikes! I still wonder why everyone was coming in at the same time. Weird.

It was really too hot for us to enjoy much on some days. That's when the resort pool became our best friend.

 

[ddstratton]

Mom was up early and went to the food court to get some coffee while the rest of us were either sleeping or just relaxing. She took a few pictures along the way.

Once we all got up and around, Mom and I decided we should go do some laundry. It's a horrible thing to have to do on vacation, but whatcha gonna do?

It took us a few minutes to find the laundry area. Turns out, it’s just around the corner from the pool bar -- kind of between Mardi Grogs and the hot tub area.

While waiting for the laundry to finish, I went to the food court to fill my mug.

This guy gives me the heebie jeebies.

We finished up laundry right around 10:00 am. We didn’t really have any plans for this morning/afternoon. After some discussion, we decided to go to Downtown Disney. We never did make it there on our last trip.

I know it's a short update, but at least it's an update. Another will follow shortly.

 

[skywaywaver]

Read up until this point and love it! I'm now starving - your food porn is driving me nuts! LOL

 

[onelilspark]

All caught up!

 

[debf]

Thanks for the update. Looks like your mom had the place to herself on her morning walk. So pretty.

 

[pwdebbie]

Started reading your TR when I saw Autotrain in the title. Did you happen to get any pictures of what your roomette looked like with the beds in place? I'm still toying with the idea of Autotrain (and we leave in less than three weeks).

The name "Chambersburg" caught my eye so I had to look closer at those pics. That's MY Red Lobster! Gosh, I didn't know there was Holiday Inn Express over there. I know we have a Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn, and Quality Inn in that area, but I didn't know about the HIE.

I couldn't believe it when I saw your mom going down the slide. She's got guts! Hmmm, maybe I'll give it a try the next time. I had a horrible experience on a big water slide at Water Country USA (Williamsburg, VA) way back in the 80s and have never gotten on one since. Seriously -- everyone thought I was going to fly over the side. Heck, I thought I was going over the side. My family was screaming, the lifeguards were running. I had quite a reception committee at the bottom. Haven't been on a slide since!

You look to be about the same size as me. BTMRR didn't seem to be a problem for you. Maybe I should try it. [Of course, I've used my size for years as an excuse to not ride a roller coaster. I should tell you about my experience on the Rebel Yell in Kings Dominion (VA again). Something about me and things that go down . . . ]

You are making me think seriously about O'Hana. And I never gave a character breakfast a thought since we are just two adults without kids, but I hadn't considered the empty park aspect, and I do love a good breakfast. Might have to go check some ADR availability tonight.

Looking forward to reading more of your TR.

 

[ddstratton]

Read up until this point and love it! I'm now starving - your food porn is driving me nuts! LOL

Thank you! I know what you mean about the food porn... I get hungry again when I look at the pictures.

All caught up!

Thanks for reading! I'll be putting up another update soon.

Thanks for the update. Looks like your mom had the place to herself on her morning walk. So pretty.

Most mornings, the resort was actually pretty quiet. It was very peaceful and pleasant. We really did enjoy this resort.

Started reading your TR when I saw Autotrain in the title. Did you happen to get any pictures of what your roomette looked like with the beds in place? I'm still toying with the idea of Autotrain (and we leave in less than three weeks).

It's a little hard to get a good picture of a roomette with the beds down, as there's no a lot of room to move once the beds are down. Let's see what I can find...

This is a shot where I was sitting up against the "headboard" end of the bed, looking down to the other end.

Here are a couple from our October 2008 Disney trip. We took the AutoTrain for the trip home.

As you can see in this one, there is not a lot of space once you shut the door in your roomette when the beds are down. But you don't really need it, because you're in bed. It's easier if the person sleeping in the top bunk gets up there before you shut your door, but that's about the only thing I can think of.

The name "Chambersburg" caught my eye so I had to look closer at those pics. That's MY Red Lobster! Gosh, I didn't know there was Holiday Inn Express over there. I know we have a Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn, and Quality Inn in that area, but I didn't know about the HIE.

The HIE is really close to that Red Lobster. We walked to it, just across a couple parking lots. This picture shows it. Red Lobster is the left arrow, and the HIE is the right arrow.

I couldn't believe it when I saw your mom going down the slide. She's got guts! Hmmm, maybe I'll give it a try the next time. I had a horrible experience on a big water slide at Water Country USA (Williamsburg, VA) way back in the 80s and have never gotten on one since. Seriously -- everyone thought I was going to fly over the side. Heck, I thought I was going over the side. My family was screaming, the lifeguards were running. I had quite a reception committee at the bottom. Haven't been on a slide since!

I'm the same way about big water slides. Similar experience on one once. However, this waterslide was really pretty tame. Not a huge long one, or really steep. It's really meant for the kiddos, but is big enough that adults can ride too, if they want. We had a blast at that pool...

You look to be about the same size as me. BTMRR didn't seem to be a problem for you. Maybe I should try it. [Of course, I've used my size for years as an excuse to not ride a roller coaster. I should tell you about my experience on the Rebel Yell in Kings Dominion (VA again). Something about me and things that go down . . . ]

Gotta say -- Disney is very friendly to it's Pooh-sized guests. There was not one single thing that we could not fit on. Mom and I are both Pooh-sized. My worst area is the tummy. But all restraints closed with no problems, and I had no problems fitting into anything. We were even able to ride Barnstormer without a problem - and that's really a kiddie ride. Between our two trips, we've ridden almost all of the rides. Haven't done the Teacups or Astro Orbiter, or Mission Space. Even Rock n Roller Coaster wasn't a problem at all.

You are making me think seriously about O'Hana. And I never gave a character breakfast a thought since we are just two adults without kids, but I hadn't considered the empty park aspect, and I do love a good breakfast. Might have to go check some ADR availability tonight.

Looking forward to reading more of your TR.

We absolutely loved the supper at Ohana. Oh great, I'm drooling again. If you decide to have an early breakfast at Crystal Palace, you won't be the only adults-only group there. Lots of people do it. Their breakfast was really very good on both of our trips. Yup. I'm hungry again...

 

[ddstratton]

When we last left off, we had just finished up doing some laundry at the Laundry on the Levee.

Back in the room, we decided that a trip to Downtown Disney was in order. We never did make it there on our first trip. So we gathered our stuff and headed down to the boat dock. We only waited about five minutes for a boat to come.

Me and my lovely new hat.

One of the Tree Houses. These just look so cool.

We saw the Characters In Flight balloon.

We spent a little bit of time just walking around part of Downtown Disney. We walked as far as Fulton’s, then turned around and walked back.

On the way back through, we stopped into the Lego store to look around.

We let DD pick out a small tub of Lego pieces from the bins on the wall.

Total cost for this was $8.51. And it was pretty nice because the lid on the tub did not have to snap on. As long as it would touch all the way around, they’d tape the lid on for you.

After that, we walked around in the World of Disney a little bit. I bought a Mickey Head ice cube tray. Total cost was $6.34

Dunno who the kid is. I just liked the stuffed animal display.

continued in next post...

 

[ddstratton]

After the World of Disney, we went into Basin. Oh my. I could spend a LOT of money in here if I were in the right mood… As it was, I ended up not buying anything!! DD bought a little piece of DR Pepper soap (which smelled WONDERFUL) and Mom bought a few things. I just didn’t see anything that I REALLY wanted on that particular day.

This was the Dr Pepper soap.

After Basin, we visited Once Upon a Toy. I really don’t think we bought anything here… I don’t have a receipt if we did – or pictures of anything.

By now, we were getting a little hungry. It was right around 1:00 pm, and we were right near the Earl of Sandwich.

This place was BUSY! There was a super-long line, but it moved quickly. Our timing was just right – Mom and DD were able to grab a table for four while we were paying. We filled up our drinks and waited for our buzzer. It only took a few minutes before our food was ready. I was nice to sit down and relax while we ate. Mom had the Ham & Swiss, I had the Full Montague (no tomatoes), DH had the All American and DD had the kids PB&J. Mom got a strawberry parfait and DD got a peach parfait. I had also picked up a potato salad and a chocolate pudding with whipped topping. The potato salad, desserts and part of my sandwich ended up going back to the room with us. Sorry – we didn’t get pictures here. We were just too hungry!! The sandwiches were very good, by the way. Total cost here was $40.32

After lunch, we made our way back to the boat docks. We only waited a few minutes for the next boat.

Once we got back to our room, we just vegged for a little while. DD played around with her new Legos.

We'll leave off here for now. Up next - an evening at Hollywood Studios.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Again, I'm loving all of your pictures. The boat ride from Port Orleans to DTD looks so nice and relaxing.

I have never eaten at Earl of Sandwich. We are thinking about it for our upcoming trip though. Do you think it would be a good use of a counter service credit?

 

[pwdebbie]

You are getting me excited for my visit to POFQ in two weeks. Love the boat to DTD. The last time we went, they were working on the treehouses. Looks like they cleaned up a lot of brush because you could hardly see them from the river before. Maybe it is because I live in the middle of a state forest, but the treehouses just don't appeal to me.

 

[ddstratton]

Again, I'm loving all of your pictures. The boat ride from Port Orleans to DTD looks so nice and relaxing.

I have never eaten at Earl of Sandwich. We are thinking about it for our upcoming trip though. Do you think it would be a good use of a counter service credit?

Thanks! The boat ride was wonderful. Very peaceful and relaxing.

I think it would be good for a CS credit. The food was tasty and filling.

You are getting me excited for my visit to POFQ in two weeks. Love the boat to DTD. The last time we went, they were working on the treehouses. Looks like they cleaned up a lot of brush because you could hardly see them from the river before. Maybe it is because I live in the middle of a state forest, but the treehouses just don't appeal to me.

We LOVED POFQ! The boat ride is great.