The Dutchies first time to Orlando! *UPDATE 7/27 on pg 11; The end (with surprise!)*

[fizz13]

Hi there,
I'm so glad i found your report, its wonderful and i'm so glad your boyfriend recovered in time for the trip! I've been to DLP a few times too so i know that the scale of WDW can throw you at first, how did you find it? You were very well prepared from your pictures
I can't wait to hear what you thought of all of it and will be waiting for more

 

[Marjol]

50 Years too: Thanks for the compliment. I'm not really bilingual though, I really have to think when I write in English. But I'm glad you can all read i! And you should go to DLP once, to try Space Mountain & Big Thunder Mountain, which are a lot better in Paris But everything else is nicer in WDW!

CriminyCraftt: Thanks for reading! I'll continue my TR somewhere this week

isma: Thanks for still reading We had a wonderful time. And the flight wasn't too bad.. we were very well rested before MGM the next day

fizz13: Great to have you here! Thanks for reading my TR! WDW was big, but I still loved it

 

[goofy!]

Marjol -
Just found your pre-trip and trip report today. It has been great fun to read. You and your boyfriend look like such a nice couple. Glad all illness was over by the time you got on the plane!

I grew up with Dutch parents and most of my relatives are still there, mostly in Eindhoven and Roosendaal. Let me tell you, your English is WAY better than my Dutch!!! It is better than a lot of Americans I know.

Last year, my best moment in Epcot was finding drop in Norway. Wasn't dubbel zout (my favorite), but still zout, so good enough!

Can't wait to read the rest of your report! And come on over to the Universal boards and do a trip report there too for your Universal visits!

 

[scottny]

great report. I love Starbuck's. Living in New York City there is oneevery 3 blocks so can get it often. (not good on the waist though). LOL

Looking forward to the rest of the report.

 

[Marjol]

goofy! Thanks for reading. Do you speak any Dutch? I live quite close to Eindhoven, in Den Bosch. Thanks for reading!

scottny Thanks for joining my TR! New York is fabulous! I was there last year.

I'll start writing day 2 now

 

[Marjol]

Sunday May 6, Disney MGM Studios!

We woke up at 7.00 and I was so excited. This was our first Disney day! The time difference didn't bother me at all.

We took a shower and ate some breakfast in our room. At 8.15, we got into our car to drive to the Studios. I was really looking forward to being there bright and early.
But somehow, we went in a wrong direction and after driving for 15 minutes, we realised we were in a wrong place. We turned, went back to the hotel and asked for directions. After that, it was very easy to find and we saw this very soon:

We parked our car and we were at the opening gate at 9.15, which wasn't too bad, but I still disliked the fact that we could have been there before nine
Well, I got over that pretty soon when I entered the park. We took a picture in front of the hat first (just like everyone else )

We walked to the Tower of Terror, which I was very excited about. The line was 20 minutes, which wasn't too bad. We stood in line and loved the waiting area inside. And we adored this ride! It was excellent! It would become one of my favourites We grabbed a fastpass and took some pictures, before we went to the Rock & Rollercoaster.

Rock& Rollercoaster had a 30 minutes waiting line, which was a long, considering we only waited longer than 30 minutes for a ride ONCE in all of these 11 days. But we didn't know this on day 2, so we waited Rock & Rollercoaster was great too, it's a lot different from the version in Paris. We couldn't really pick a favourite, though.

After Rock & Rollercoaster, we decided to go and see the Beauty & the Beast show. It was a great show. I took lots of pictures.

We walked to the other side of the park to grab an early lunch at Backlot Express. We both had the hotdog with fries, which was pretty nice.

After that, we came across a picture spot with Sulley from Monsters Inc. Because we both love this movie, we got our picture taken with him. Our first picture with a Disney character!

We saw the Muppet 3D show, which was pretty nice. We walked through the Streets of America a bit (saw a lot of familiar places, having been in New York and San Francisco last year) and went on the Backlot Tour, which is nice, but the Paris version is better.
We went to One Man's Dream, which has a pretty cool exposition. There are many nice things to see there, like scale models of all the other Disney parks. The movie about Walt was worthwile seeing as well.
We also saw the Little Mermaid (the Mermaid had an excellent voice!) and the Cars, Motors and Stars Parade, which was nice.

We got our picture taken with Mickey woohoo: ) after the parade.

 

[Marjol]

We decided to see the Indiana Jones show. But after the show just started, we got some major rainfall with thunderstorms, which caused the show to stop, because the stage setting was made of metal and that's not a great combination with lightning.
So we just waited there untill the rain stopped, which took a while...

After the rain stopped, it was really quiet in the park. The lines were very short, which was great
We saw Sounds Dangerous, which we really liked (especially the part in the dark), a small piece of the High School Musical pep rally and after that, we did the Rock and Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror again, with little to no wait at all. I love rain!

After all this exitement, we decided to grab a bite to eat at ABC Commisary. We both had cheeseburgers and fries (be prepared: There's a lot of fast food in this TR ), which were OK.

It was a nice place to eat too, but sometimes we had to cover our ears... lot's of TV previews of ABC shows... and because we're very behind in the Netherlands, we didn't want to hear this

We saw Magic of Disney Animation after dinner and took a drawing class. We had to draw Pluto, and our drawings turned out pretty nice, even though I'm a pretty bad drawer...

After that, we walked to the Fantasmic show area, because we knew it is a very popular show. It was 8.15 by the time we were there. We grabbed some and drinks and found a great seat in the center. And then... we waited... and looked at people
Fantasmic was a great show. We definately enjoyed it.

After Fantasmic, we (and 10.000 others) walked to the exit of the park. It got quite chilly, but still OK for us Dutchies
We left the parking area pretty soon and arrived at our hotel around 10.15. We were very tired, but it had been a perfect first day at Disney. We loved MGM and were very curious about our next park...!

Up next: Day 3; Epcot!

 

[punkin413]

After that, we walked to the Fantasmic show area, because we knew it is a very popular show. It was 8.15 by the time we were there. We grabbed some and drinks and found a great seat in the center. And then... we waited... and looked at people
Fantasmic was a great show. We definately enjoyed it.

i can't believe you guys sat so close to us! i'm gonna have to watch the video we took to see if i see you. and what a great picture! i'm jealous. my pictures of fantasmic didn't turn out so well. i got some decent wishes pictures though. but you'll see those later in my TR! looking forward to your epcot report! we were there on monday, too!

 

[scottny]

Fantastic. keep it going.

 

[disneymoon_0307]

I just found your TR and it is awesome. I can't wait to read more. By the way you English is awesome. I can't believe you don't speak it all the time. It's much better than some people I know. Keep it coming!! I love all the pictures.

 

[isma]

Rock & Rollercoaster was great too, it's a lot different from the version in Paris. We couldn't really pick a favourite, though.

We walked through the Streets of America a bit (saw a lot of familiar places, having been in New York and San Francisco last year) and went on the Backlot Tour, which is nice, but the Paris version is better.

Glad RnRC is also great at WDW, it`s one of my favs at DLP ! And I didn`t remember how the Backlot tour at WDW was, so I am surprised you find the DLP version to be better. It`s great to read a report from someone who has been so often to DLP and can compare the 2 parks, I get a better idea of what to expect when we go next year or 2009 to WDW!
And you didn`t have to queue for the Moteurs stunt show, right

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

This shot is gorgeous! I love your report so far. I am so glad that you boyfriend was feeling better for the trip. That would not have been fun for him or for you if you had been stuck on the plane while he was still sick. It sounds like your first day went really well and I can't wait to hear more!

 

[Marjol]

punkin413: If you show me the video, I can tell you where we were

scottny: Thanks!

disneymoon_0307: Thanks for reading and the compliment!

isma: Yes, I can compare the two parks quite well We were quite early for the motor show, but you could walk in five minutes before the show and find a seat as well.

Lifelong_Dreamer: I really like that picture as well. And I'm glad my boyfriend was feeling better too

 

[crossfamily]

Seems like you guys had a really good first day at the parks.. I still haven't seen fantasmic but seeing your picture I will definately go this year.. I can't wait to read more...

 

[Kristina]

Just found your trip report and I'm really enjoying it so thank you ! I love it when people also post the personal pictures like you like for example your suitcases at home and things you planned on packing. It really adds to the excitement us readers! Glad your boyfriend did his job and was feeling better just in time. Good boyfriend ! He looks like he is having fun too! Good also to know how the Continental flight works from Amsterdam and that you enjoyed flying with them. Although I'm from California we live in Sweden and have flown with KLM from Iceland, and BA and lastly Virgin with the last two direct from the UK. We liked Virgin the best although BA was just fine too. The KLM plane was not modern at all but it did the trick for our first trip .
Anyway looking forward to your next installment!

 

[juttawdw]

Marjol een geweldig tripreport , ik vind het geweldig om te lezen, is een leuk voorproefje voor onze vakantie, wij gaan in september.

I will also write it english for the one who don't understand english.

Marjol a great tripreport, i love it to read your report, it is a nice tasting for our own vacation , we are going in september.

 

[nsalz]

Marjol. Great report. I love the fact that you did so much at MGM. You did many things that people skip over because they just want to do the the major rides. Wasn't the animation drawing fun? My girls and I do that every time we go to WDW. Great pictures. Can't wait for more.

 

[Marjol]

crossfamily: You really should see Fantasmic. It's great!

Kristina: Thanks a lot for reading my TR! Continental was great, but we also liked United, we flew with them last year (to New York).

juttawdw: Ah, leuk, nog meer Nederlanders hier! Ze zijn erg schaars Bedankt voor het lezen van mijn tripreport. Ik heb ook een Nederlandse weblog over deze vakantie, als je geïnteresseerd bent. Stuur maar even een PM in dat geval, ik zet de link hier liever niet neer, omdat er ook foto's in staan en dat zou al een hoop verraden

nsalz: I love the animation drawing! We did it in Disney Quest as well, although that was different, because you draw on computers there.
And I love doing everything in a park and I was glad we were able too

 

[Marjol]

Day 3, May 7th; Epcot!

We got out of bed at 7.00 am again and after a shower and a small breakfast in our room (peanut butter sandwich with a cool drink from our fridge) we left for Epcot at 8.20. We knew how to drive to Disneyworld now, and we were at Epcot about 20 minutes before opening. It was really quiet! We (like everyone else.. )started with a picture of Spaceship Earth.

After that, we grabbed a map of the park and waited. We witnessed the park opening ceremony and after opening we (and everyone else) walked to the Land pavillion, to ride Soarin'. We had to wait (and walk!) for about five minutes and got seats on the right, the second row. We really liked Soarin'. Very cool. The legs in front of me did bother me, though. We grabbed fastpasses to go again, in the hope that we would get first row places.
After that, we went to the other side of Future World, to ride Test Track, which was very, very cool! We really liked it and rode it again immediately, because the waiting line was very short (like 5 minutes).

After riding Test Track twice, we decided to have a Mission to Space. We chose the orange line, because we really wanted to try "the real thing". I know that is very stubborn of me, considering I really hate spinning... but I just wanted to try this We didn't have to wait long. Gerbert was assigned commandor and I was the navigator. Mission Space was cool, but pretty intense! Gerbert really liked it, but I was feeling dizzy afterwards... I really had to sit down for a couple of minutes. I kept that feeling for about one hour after the mission. This really was a once in a lifetime experience for me!

We got back to the Land pavillion to ride Soarin again. But unfortunately, we got seats on the right ánd on the third row, which means we now saw the bottom of the screen and two rows of dangling legs... We still liked it, though.... it's still a great experience.

We took a boat ride with "Living on the land", of which we thought it was pretty boring... After that we decided to have an early lunch at the Seasons restaurant. We had some kind of beef with mashed potatoes. It was OK, but quite expensive in comparison with other counter service meals.
The fruit salad was great though!

After our meal, we went to the new Nemo ride. We took some pictures of the "Mine! Mine!" gulls and got our picture taken with Marlin and Dory.

The line of the Nemo ride was quite long, but quickly moving. The ride itself was pretty entertaining. After the ride, I noticed Bruce the shark traded eating fish for eating humans...

We also saw Turtle Talk with Crush, which was wonderful! We really laughed out loud! Very nice job!

We decided to walk to the World Showcase. On our way there, we came across the Imagination with Figment ride, which we ofcourse tried. After the ride, which was cute, we sent some e-cards to friends and family there.
We also visited the character connection and got our pictures taken with Mickey & Minnie, Pluto & Goofy and Chip & Dale. A real good character catch

We now headed to the World Showcase. We first saw "Oh Canada", which was nice. At the United Kingdom, we took some pictures of the flower and garden festival and I got my picture taken with Pooh and Tigger.

At France, we saw Impressions of France, which was OK. We ate a crepe and an ice cream.We also saw some characters, like Sleeping Beauty, Marie (from the Aristocats) and Beauty and the Beast.

We looked around in Morocco and Japan (which was nice) and saw the American Adventure, which was pretty boring . We also grabbed a bite to eat in the US. I had a chicken burger with apple slices, Gerbert had a cheesenburger with fries. I really liked my frozen fanta. There was a show going on across the street from where we ate, which was pretty entertaining.

We went to Italy and got our picture taken by a nice Photopass photographer at the fountain.

We walked through Germany and saw the China movie and some acrobatic stunts at China. At Norway we just browsed the shop (because Maelstrom was closed) and finally we took the boatride in Mexico, which was quite cute. We liked the 3 Caballeros. We also took a picture in front of the temple.

We really didn't know what to expect of the World Showcase, because we already visited most of these countries for real (Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany and Mexico) but we really liked it! It was nice to just walk and see things and grab a bite here and there.

After visiting all these countries, we visited some shops and walked back to the United Kingdom and found a great spot to watch Illuminations, right next to the wheelchair area. We liked Illuminations, but it wasn't as great as Fantasmic.

After Illuminations, we walked back to the parking lot. We got to our car pretty fast and 15 minutes later, we were back at our hotel! It had been another great day!

Up next: Day 4, May 8th; Universal Studios Islands of Adventures.

 

[punkin413]

i can't believe we didn't see each other! we were pretty much on the same schedule of touring the park until somewhere around morocco, then you'll have to wait to see what happens in the next installment of my TR! and i'm glad you cleared up who that cat was....i had my pic made with princess aurora and the cat was in the same courtyard and we couldn't figure out who she was. i've seen the aristocats, but it was a long time ago and i just didn't remember that character!