TR - Landed August 26th

[Jletendre]

Well we landed ... Judging by the flight down and then confirmed with the lines at DME there are A LOT of people headed to WDW!!!

While waiting for our bus at the airport they were handing out flyers for the P&P party so ill take that as a good sign they won't be packed ... (Crossing fingers)

Its hot but not unbearable ... Low 90's at 11:20.

I will be updating 'live' via blackberry and then laptop as I can ...

Jeff

 

[dizneyrules]

Subscribing

We leave on Friday!

 

[Jletendre]

Day 1 recap

Aug 26th - Sept 1st
DH (me) 37, DW 36, DD 6, DD 5

We got to Boardwalk by 11:50 and pleasantly our room was ready .. we were checked in and in our room by 12:05. This is my wife's first time in a deluxe and she is beyond thrilled with the atmosphere and little touches throughout the hotel.

Walked down to ESPN zone for a quick lunch (OOP) and then we hit Epcot around 1:30.

First thing I noticed was the park was fairly uncrowded, I wanted everyone to ride Soarin as they chickened out last year. Walked right to Soarin and the wait for 80 mins .. (now I know where everyone was) .. Fastpasses were for 5:15-6:54 which worked for us as we were having dinner at the Garden Grill.

While in the land we went through Lion king show, and the boat ride both we walked right on.

Left and hit The Living Seas (I'll always call it this) .. walked right onto the new Nemo ride - it was cute and the girls liked it. I just kept seeing touches for the old attraction walking in ..

Left and walked by Test Track (50 min wait) didn't bother with a FP as we are doing Epcot later in the week.

Hit Mexico and the "new" boat ride is cute .. easier for kids and doesn't feel like a tourist advertisment ..

Walked by Norway but it was closed? I didn't remember seeing it was closed so I'll check it later this week.

By now everyone was tired and it was hot .. (left for the airport at 5am) .. walked back to Boardwalk and we all took a nap.

Laying in bed watched the weather reports as a bad thunderstrom was in the area with strong winds and possible hail .. (ugh) .. it didn't do all that but it poured ..

Around 6pm it lightened up and we headed back to Epcot for Soarin and dinner.

After the rain it was much cooler and the park was pretty dead due to the rain. Walked on Soarin and waited mabe 10 mins with the other FP people (a very rude family and a lady from the UK with 2 kids totally out of control)

My wife doesn't like heights so she totally wigged out on Soarin and the girls got a good laugh. The rest of us enjoyed a nice ride.

Dinner at Garden Grill was decent, DW enjoyed it and the girls didn't complain. being a character meal they are half eating anyways .. plenty of character interaction. I'm not a big family style eater, the meats and rolls were very tasty. Was this meal worth $90? Like when we do the CRT I know they factor the character's being there as part of the cost and having personal time with Farmer Mickey, Pluto and Chip & Dale is worth it to me.

Got done with dinner and found a spot for Illumination and it's still a nice show. When the show ended we walked back to Boardwalk and everyone went to sleep pretty fast!

Day 2 is Magic Kingdom - Breakfast at Kona Cafe, Lunch likely at Columbia harbour house. Then we have a late dinner at Chef Mickey's.

I'll update again soon.

 

[captchris]

Sounds like fun...Subscribing

 

[momtoccc]

Oh goody... another live report!!

 

[lynn71092]

I'm in!!

 

[Jletendre]

Day 2

Woke up feeling better getting a nights sleep. (nothing like walking the parks to do that!)

Left BW around 7:15am for breakfast at Kona Cafe, luckily the bus came within 5 minutes after getting to the bus stop, off bus to monorial .. notice people were already waiting for MK to open ..

Monorial took 15 mins as we stopped at contemp and TTC, got to Poly right on time. Kona has a nice breakfast, DW had the Tonga Toast, I had regular French Toast, girls has mickey flapjacks. No complaints with breakfast.

Back on the monorial and got to MK at 9:15am.

Headed right to Splash Mountain 5 min wait .. basically walked on splash mountain, thunder mountain. Headed to Pirates and the girls wanted to stop and get autographs and pictures with peter pan, Wendy, Captain Hook and his mate. Pirates was a 15 min wait but it went quick.

Caught Capt Jack's show and DW cannot wait for the P&P party for pictures.

Looped back to Fantasy land (starting to get crowded) and Peter Pan has a 40 min wait .. Fast Passes obtained and walked onto IASW .. got off and had a snack to get out of the heat and then did Peter Pan ..

Walked over to Tommrow land and did the speedway (30 min wait, but the line moved fast) .. walked to the Monster's Inc attraction - by now everyone was really hot so we just waited .. prob 20 mins till the show. It's funny and short .. alot like turtle talk. Walked off and Buzz Lightyear Blasters (whatever the name is) had a 50 min wait .. FP and we headed back to Harbour House to have lunch (eating late as Chef Mickey's tonight isn't till 9pm!) ..

After lunch we hit Buzz and then walked over to Space Mountain (20 min wait, again line was moving)

By now the park was crazy busy and most rides were 40-50 min waits .. headed back to the BW for some pool time and naps.

I'll update in the morning about dinner. Some thoughts on today though.

1 - tons of forgeiners (UK, Mexico, Japan yes I saw tour groups etc)
1.5 - these people SWARM the characters, they have no concept of lines or that at characters meals you are paying for said characters interaction, photo ops - I saw more then a few people thinking they can just walk into restaurants to get photo's - and get mad they were asked to leave)
2 - not as crazy busy as last year but it's more crowded then I thought it would be, likely due to 1st week of free dining.

If your plan is early mornings and leave mid afternoon you should be able to go through the major attractions with no problems.

 

[Jletendre]

Day 2nd (Evening)

Refreshed from pool time and short naps we headed to Chef Mickey's around 8:10pm

Arrived at Contemporary at 8:50pm and was seated by 9:15pm (ADR was 9:10)

CM was still crowded but we notice most are large parties of 10+ .. once they cleared out we had the place almost to ourselves. As always this is one of the better buffet places and we all had much to eat. Everything tasted great and was hot and fresh.

Plenty of interaction / photos from the usual CM gang (Mickey, Mini, Goofy, Donald, Pluto)

Left Contemporary around 10:15 and got back to the buses around 10:25 .. the crowds were heavy as Wishes was at 10pm .. if anyone wants to know how busy it is .. the moderates and value lines were the largest I have ever seen coming here .. it was chaos and tempers were flaring .. alot of pushes and people cranky and tired .. we managed to get to our line and got on the 2nd bus. I think some of those long lines were there for some time .. they were really cranking the buses in though.

With the crowds increasing .. I'm hoping they might extend the hours some.

Day 3 is going to be MGM with Sci-fi for lunch and brown derby and fantasmic for dinner.

Update again soon.

I'm carrying my Blackberry so if anyone wants an update drop me a SMS text
4136279382