Dates: May 3-9, 2006
Airline : JetBlue, JFK-MCO-JFK
Transportation to resort: Disney's Magical Express
Resort: Disney's All-Star Music, Broadway section
Ticket type: Annual Pass
Background: This was my first solo trip to WDW in about 8 years. I had been taking my folks once or twice each year since about 1995, and took my Mom twice after my Dad passed away in 2004. My Mom wasn't physically up to the trip this Spring. No one else was available to travel, and I still needed to get away, so I decided to head to WDW by myself. I thought it would be a great opportunity to do all the things that I like that I can't do when traveling with my Mom. (This includes thrill rides, as well as the nighttime parades and fireworks, since she usually tires out early.) I won't go into a blow-by-blow description of the trip, mainly because i'm not that interesting a writer. I'll just try to hit the good and bad points.
Highlights
Airline : JetBlue, JFK-MCO-JFK
Transportation to resort: Disney's Magical Express
Resort: Disney's All-Star Music, Broadway section
Ticket type: Annual Pass
Background: This was my first solo trip to WDW in about 8 years. I had been taking my folks once or twice each year since about 1995, and took my Mom twice after my Dad passed away in 2004. My Mom wasn't physically up to the trip this Spring. No one else was available to travel, and I still needed to get away, so I decided to head to WDW by myself. I thought it would be a great opportunity to do all the things that I like that I can't do when traveling with my Mom. (This includes thrill rides, as well as the nighttime parades and fireworks, since she usually tires out early.) I won't go into a blow-by-blow description of the trip, mainly because i'm not that interesting a writer. I'll just try to hit the good and bad points.
Highlights
- Traveling solo to WDW: I definitely recommend this, especially to those park fans who travel with people who either can't or won't do the things you'd like to do, or don't "get it." It was fun to completely own my time in the parks, eating and riding and seeing all my favorites. Sure, I felt a little lonely and conspicuous at times, standing all by myself surrounded by people talking and laughing together, but I quickly got over it. And it helped having my new camera to distract me as I searched for good photo ops.
- Magical Express & Disney transportation: I have always rented a car on my WDW trips because I like the flexibility it affords. I didn't think it was worth the extra expense this time, and I knew I would be content to remain on property. I'd heard mostly good things about ME, and though I was a bit nervous about being at the mercy of Disney transportation, I decided to give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised - ME worked better than I ever expected. Arriving at MCO, I was on a bus to my resort 45 minutes after my flight arrived at the gate. (I would have been on my way sooner had I not gotten on the wrong line at first.) For the return trip, even though the bus was 20 minutes late, I still got to MCO in plenty of time for me to get through security and grab a bite to eat before my flight. And I absolutely loved checking in for my flight and dumping off my checked bag at the resort that morning before heading to the parks on my last day - one less thing I had to worry about when I arrived at the airport that evening!
During the week, Disney transportation worked out well. Most times I only had to wait 5-10 minutes for a bus, the exception being one late night at MK, when I waited for an hour. (A second late night at MK almost turned out the same, but luckily I noticed that the All-Star Sports bus had plenty of room. Even though I had to walk a bit, I still got back well before I would have had I waited for an All-Star Music bus.) Transferring to Downtown Disney from the Animal Kingdom took a while, but at least there was entertainment in the form of a honeymooning couple having their first, and probably not their last, spat. - Expedition Everest: An excellent addition to the Animal Kingdom! I rode it three times during my visit, twice using Fastpass, and once as a single rider. I thought riding further back in the train was more thrilling, but it seemed like the front car had the best view of the Yeti.
- Keys to the Kingdom Tour: Hope gave a very informative and entertaining 5 1/2 hour tour. I did learn quite a few new things, and was thrilled to get a chance to see some backstage areas, including a walk through part of the Utilidors. I would especially recommend this to solo travelers.
- Evening Extra Magic Hours: The one hour morning EMHs hardly seem worth the effort to me, especially when visiting off-season. It was great having the option to stay later and longer! I took advantage of each one during my trip, even managing to close out the Magic Kingdom at 1am.
- Dinner with Barrie: Barrie (from the DISboards) and I discovered that we had overlapping solo trips with brand new digital cameras. Now, I'm not very social, and can count on one hand the number of strangers I have actually corresponded with on the internet. But Barrie seemed very nice in her PMs to me, so when she suggested we meet for dinner, I decided to take her up on the offer. I'm glad that I did - Barrie was very comfortable to chat with, and I had an enjoyable time. Be sure to check out Barrie's trip report lens on squidoo. You'll see that she is an excellent photographer!
- Meeting an Internet celebrity - I bumped into Deb Wills, from allearsnet, during a walk through the Pangani Forest Trail in the Animal Kingdom. Although I had seen pictures of her before, I did not recognize her at first. We were elbow-to-elbow through much of the trail, practically taking the same photos. Then I heard her identify herself as "Deb" on her cellphone. No, could it be? The allearsnet tag on her backpack was the final clue. I was reasonably sure it was her, but I am rather shy, so I followed her around for a few more minutes before getting up the courage to speak. I introduced myself, gushed thanks to her for her efforts with her web site, and we chatted for a couple of minutes. She was very friendly and gracious, and even gave me an allearsnet lanyard and button. (She was probably just relieved that I was not some crazed stalker.)
- Flower and Garden Festival: Don't get me wrong - I love what they do to my favorite park this time of year. All the flowers and displays are simply beautiful. However, this year, it just seemed like more of the same, nothing special - mostly the same old topiaries, gardens (it would have been nice to see the clacker garden in the Japan pavilion working properly), etc., and the new stuff didn't wow me all that much.
- There's always a good explanation for everything: I was on the Standby line for "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience". The line stopped just short of the entrance, leaving me baking out in the sun. I could see that there was lots of space in the inside queue, but the people in front of me would not move into it. I have to admit I was thinking some not-so-nice thoughts about them, but I patiently waited it out, sweating quite a bit. When the line started moving again, I learned why no one had filled in that space: a little girl that I had seen escorted out earlier had vomited on the floor there.
- Always test your data back-up plan before you leave on your trip: I didn't want to travel with a laptop since it would tempt me to check in with my job, and I was really looking forward to a work-free trip. I knew the CF cards I took with me would not be enough space for photos. I do have a 6GB microdrive, but didn't want to be carrying that on thrill rides. Solution: use my Dell Axim each night to transfer pictures from my cards to the microdrive. My Axim only has one CF slot, but it does have an SD card slot, so I figured I'd use a two step copy process - CF->SD, and then SD->microdrive. Sounds simple enough, right? What I failed to realize was how long this transfer process would take. The first step went relatively quickly, but copying to the microdrive took forever! After a long day of park-hopping, I couldn't stay awake most nights, and wound up kicking off the second copy and then passing out, waking up in the middle of the night to check for success, clean off the cards, and then put everything away. I should have just carried the laptop!
- When planning to meet a stranger, make sure you know what they look like: Barrie and I had planned to meet at the Big River Grille at 5pm. I had arrived early, in search of a frozen coffee drink (I never did find one - does anyone know of a shop on the Boardwalk that sells one?), then sat down at a bench near the entrance to the restaurant. It got to be about 5 after 5, no Barrie, and I started getting nervous that maybe I misunderstood where we were supposed to meet. I decided to ask at the check-in desk whether a single woman was seated inside waiting for someone. They didn't know, but suggested that I go inside to look for her. I started to giggle as I realized I wasn't really sure who I was looking for. Thank goodness they didn't ask me to describe her, and that there were no single women inside for me to embarrass myself with! Luckily, Barrie arrived just a couple of minutes later. Turns out she had underestimated the trek from her room to the restaurant, which required her to walk out to the lobby and then double back to Big River.
- Always look before you sit: A rather energetic little toddler by the name of Benjamin was seated behind me on the Magical Express bus back to MCO. Benjamin had been out of control at the bus stop, running and climbing and ignoring his mother's requests to stop. He was no better on the bus, kicking my seat and playing with the foot rest. I knew we were in trouble when he announced to his mother "Poopie in my pants!" She told him several times that she would change him in a few minutes, but he kept squirming and complaining. Then I heard the mother exclaim "Oh Benjamin," and I started getting whiffs of an unpleasant odor as mom took Benjamin to the bus bathroom to change him. I never looked back to check, but when they returned, I could hear mom wiping down the seat, so I suspect that all of that squirming caused the contents of his diaper to seep out. Needless to say, I was very happy when we finally arrived at the airport and I could breathe fresh air again!
I was there on a solo trip right after you (although I don't know how much of a solo trip it was since I spent so much time with DIS people). 
This will be my first trip to Disney with my digital camera and I can't wait to snap away! 
to all of my Hudson Valley DIS neighbors, both past and present! It was a pleasant surprise to know there are so many WDW fans in the area.
