WDW trip, Oct. 22-24

[fliewr]

We leave this afternoon for our fourth trip to WDW. So excited. This is our first trip in October. Our previous three were in December. Weather looks great but much warmer than it's ever been for us.

We are staying offsite. The plan is to do Animal Kingdom on Thursday. Hit Universal's Halloween Horror Night Thursday night. Do the Studios on Friday and Epcot Friday night. Then spend the day on Saturday at Magic Kingdom.

It's me, DW, DD (17) and DD (13).

Hopefully there will be a little time at the end of each day to post a little recap and then next week I'll post some more.

If you'd like to follow along on Twitter - twitter.com/jmburd or twitter.com/ebethburdette

Peace.

 

[look1angel]

We leave this afternoon for our fourth trip to WDW. So excited. This is our first trip in October. Our previous three were in December. Weather looks great but much warmer than it's ever been for us.

We are staying offsite. The plan is to do Animal Kingdom on Thursday. Hit Universal's Halloween Horror Night Thursday night. Do the Studios on Friday and Epcot Friday night. Then spend the day on Saturday at Magic Kingdom.

It's me, DW, DD (17) and DD (13).

Hopefully there will be a little time at the end of each day to post a little recap and then next week I'll post some more.

If you'd like to follow along on Twitter - twitter.com/jmburd or twitter.com/ebethburdette

Peace.

Have a safe & Magical trip. Let us know how UHHN goes, never been myself & hope to do that next year.

 

[fliewr]

We have landed at the condo and now we're getting ready for bed. Early day tomorrow. I think we're further away from the parks than we've been in the past. Probably about 20-25 minutes.
Thank goodness there's a Wal-Mart just around the corner and a ginormous one about 5 minutes from here.
Til tomorrow night!
Peace.

 

[fliewr]

Quick recap of the trip down - We picked up DD17 at school about 1:30 and got on the road. It's about an 8 hour trip down so we put on some Disney music and watched the miles tick past.

We stopped in Kingsland, GA for supper at Chickfila. We made one more stop for gas but other than that we moved along at a pretty good pace. Traffic was light on 95 and 4, probably the lightest it's ever been. Other than some construction around Brunswick, we never really had to slow down. Even downtown Jacksonville was a breeze.

We pulled off I4 to go to our condo at 9:25. So we had made the trip in less than 8 hours, just barely. We stopped at Walmart to get some necessities (milk, lunch meat, peanut butter, etc.) and got to our condo about 10:00.

The condo is off 192 near marker 16. The owners left us a care package and a very nice note. We unloaded and headed to bed about 11:45.

Now it's 7:30 and we're about an hour away from heading to DAK.

The only funny story from the ride down was the my DD17 thought she saw a man with a long fake nose on. So every time we passed someone we would look at their nose and make funny comments. Or if someone was driving erratically we'd say it's because their nose got in the way. Our family has a way of entertaining itself.

 

[fliewr]

Yesterday was an adventure. Animal Kingdom was fantastic. Crowds were light. Most lines were walk-ups or 5 minute waits. We rode EE five times, Dino two times, the Safari one time, watched Nemo and Festival of the Lion King and still had time for some shopping, picture-taking, and animal watching.

We left DAK about 5:00pm, stopped at Krispy Kreme doughnuts and picked up some more supplies at Walmart. When we got back to the condo - no power. So we headed to Universal not knowing where we would spend the night.

That fact may have put me in a bad mood. But I did not enjoy HHN. The lines were LONG! for everything. We went through one of their fright zones - Silver Screams - which was a pretty good haunted house, although there were a couple of very gross place. Then we rode The Simpsons which was a pretty fun ride. We then went to line up for The Spawning fright zone. It said a 60 minute wait but we were in line for about 15 minutes and were nowhere near the front. So we left and went to find a hotel.

The atmosphere at Universal was hedonistic. Lots of drinking. Lots of bad language from the people around us (not from employees). A fight broke out as we were walking back to the entrance of the park. Plus, I'm a 41yo man. I'm not gonna be scared just because a guy in a mask with a fake chainsaw walks up to me. You have to make me jump and there were only a couple of times when that happened.

We made it to the motel at midnight. The Comfort Inn in Lake Buena Vista gets 4 stars in my book - dark rooms, quiet, refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker and very reasonably priced.

Today it's off to DHS and Epcot.

peace.

 

[fliewr]

After getting to bed so late on Thursday night, I was afraid that nerves would be short and patience thin yesterday morning. But we were able to get up and get to DHS about 10. There was really no line for ToT. In fact we walked on to it three times before heading over to Toy Story: Midway Mania. The line for MM said it was 50 minutes but we were willing to wait. The queue is a party for the eyes with artwork and decorations and Mr Potato Head to entertain you. We were through MM in 35 minutes and Dad defeated the others with a score of 116700. It was back to RNRC where we had FPs. The girls rode once while Mom and I shopped along Sunset Blvd. Then I joined the girls for two more rides.

We had FPs to ToT but everyone was exhausted and hungry so we skipped ToT and went to the van for lunch. At lunch we decided to skip the rest of DHS and head to Epcot.

While in Epcot, we found out that power was back on to the condo. YAY!!!! We rode Spaceship Earth when we first got to Epcot. The redo does a great job of meshing the old and the new. We loved using our pictures at the end of the ride to create our own future. We spent about an hour shopping in Mouse Gear before heading over to the World Showcase. We spent most of our time in Mexico and China. China has a Tomb Warrior display that everyone but Mom really enjoyed. We also stopped at Japan to hear the children's storyteller. Finished with the World, we headed to The Seas to ride Nemo and Friends. Then Mom and Dad headed to the Land to ride Soarin' using FPs that had been given to us earlier. The girls stayed behind in the Seas to check out the aquarium. Apparently they were around for feeding time and were able to see a sea turtle, some dolphins and eels. Then it was time for another trip on SE before using our last FPs for Soarin'.

Around 8, we headed out of Epcot to go to DAK for supper at Rainforest Cafe. The food is always good and we love the scenery. It can get a little loud especially during the storms but the crowd was very light. We had no wait. And Rob our waiter was very friendly and efficient. Rastapasta for the girls and mom and a BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger for dad came quickly and was tasty. By the time supper was over, we were all tired and ready to head back to the condo.

We stopped by Krispy Kreme on the way and the Hot-Now sign was on. It was a good day.

The crowds at both parks were light. We waited 30 minutes for Toy Story but that was our only wait of the day. Everything else we either FPed or walked on to. World Showcase was busy because of the Food and Wine Festival but it was not so busy that we couldn't walk around easily. The rest of Epcot was not crowded at all although the wait times for Soarin' and Test Track were 60 minutes in the standby for most of the time we were there.

Today it's off to Magic Kingdom.

peace.

 

[fliewr]

Saturday dawned sunny and, we would find out later HOT. Thankfully we were back in the condo so we were able to pack appropriately for the day. We decided to head to Epcot to start the day to get one last ride on Soarin’. We got a little bit of a late start. It was about 9:15 when we were pulling into the parking lot. Once inside the park, I headed to Soarin’ to get FPs. The standby line said 25 minutes but with the number of people heading in, we decided to take another ride of Spaceship Earth. This time my 17yo decided to listen to the Spanish version of the voice-over. I had no idea what was being said so she translated for me. Coming out of SE we still had about 20 minutes before our FPs were usable so we decided to do Living with the Land. After LwtL, it was time for Soarin’. We met a very nice lady on Soarin’ who only rode on the bottom row (#3) while her husband only rode of the top row (#1). Soarin’ is easily the best ride in the park for my entire family. By now it was about 11 so we decided to head to the van to get some lunch before heading to MK. Epcot was getting very busy and very crowded. The line for SE as we headed out was already being directed to the queue to the right. It was probably a 20 minute wait now. 75 minutes before it was a walk-up as it had been all day on Friday. I was concerned the MK was going to be worse when we showed up there.

Lunch in the van - PB&J, chips, fruit. We got to watch security chase people down who were not following the parking line.

Then it was on the monorail to Magic Kingdom. The lines at MK were not long at all. I walked up to security. Then I walked up to the entry. It was somewhat sad putting my ticket in the ticket reader. It was the last day of a 10 day no expiration pass that had been bought three years earlier. The next trip will cost considerably more.

The girls headed to PotC while I FPed Peter Pan. As usual the stand-by for PP was 65 minutes. TGFFP. The line at Pirates began just before entering the hallway. We chose the left side. Don’t know if it’s shorter but the last time we rode Pirates, we chose the right and it seemed to take forever. It said 20 minute wait time and 20 minutes it was. We headed to Frontierland to check on BTMRR. 40 minute stand-by time was too long. So we headed to Haunted Mansion. Wait time was 20 minutes but we were through HM in 15. I got to ride with DW while the girls rode together.

We still had a while before the PP FPs were usable so we slipped in to Philharmagic. While standing in line, my 13yo starting telling us she loved the smell when the pie hit us in the face. None of us remembered. In fact, we had ridden Philharmagic two years ago for the first time and the only thing I could remember about it while standing in line was that Donald ended up flying through the wall at the end. We stand four rows from the back just right of center. Two little girls beside me squealed and laughed through the whole show. We got apple pie tossed in our face. Hopefully we’ll remember next time.

Then it was on to Peter Pan. FPs for PP are a must. We walked up and got on with no wait. We decided to take a snack break - frozen bananas and pretzels. While searching for a pretzel, I snuck down and FPed Pooh for later. Surprise, surprise. I also got Surprise Fast Passes to Philharmagic. I doubted we would have time to use them but it was still a nice surprise. After snacks, it was on to It’s a Small World. My 17yo is not a fan and we all knew we would be singing it for the rest of the afternoon.
We walked through the castle area taking pictures and getting Photopass pics taken as well, stopped in a few shops, and danced in front of the castle.

Then it was over to Tomorrowland. We rode the TTA which was worth it just for the ride through the closed down Space Mountain. We were all sad that we wouldn’t get to ride SM on this trip but school holidays don’t move for SM closures. After TTA, I FPed Buzz. The standby time for Buzz was 40 minutes. We decided to split up and let the adults do some shopping and the girls enjoy some more PotC.

Mom and I went through every shop on Main Street, stopped at First Aid for some band aids, and then sat in the shade to listen to the Move it, Shake it, Celebrate it Street Party that was going on in front of the castle. We stopped at a few more shops near the Hall of Presidents before meeting the girls for one more ride on HM. During their time, they were able to ride PotC two more times and FP BTMRR for later.

After HM, we stopped at Pinocchio’s Village Haus for pizza. The pizza is surprisingly good there and it’s fun to watch the people on SW set sail on the happiest cruise that ever sailed. After supper, we rode Pooh. Again TGFFP, we walked right up with no wait for the ride. After Pooh, we were headed back to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz. After Toy Story’s Midway Mania at DHS, Buzz is somewhat of a let-down. Good thing the wait was short. It took us about 5 minutes to get through the line.

Now it was back across the park to Frontierland for our FP of BTMRR. The crowds were gathering for the 8:00 SpectroMagic parade. We walked down the street with very few people. Most were on the sidewalks waiting. It was my first time on BTMRR. What a cool coaster. Long ride with lots of cool dips. We stopped in a store in Frontierland. My 13yo and I hid a quarter in the store. We decided that was a good enough reason to come back - to see if anyone had found our quarter. We headed back to the castle for fireworks just as SpectroMagic was ending. It was most definitely the biggest crowd I’ve ever been in at Disney.

We got in place for the fireworks just to the left of the castle at about 8:45. I remember the first time at Magic Kingdom in 2005, we watched the fireworks from a bridge on the right side and most of them went off behind the trees. My family laughs about it every time. Jiminy Cricket gets us in the mood for fireworks and then Wishes begins. Wishes is the most magical moment at Disney for me.

After Wishes, we head back to PotC for a couple more rides. Then it’s on to Splash Mountain for our “let’s get wet since it’s the end of the day” ride. And we do get wet. DW passes on the wet ride and looks very smart as the three of us shiver our way back to shops around the castle and on main.
Then, the day and the weekend at Disney are over. We take the monorail back to the Transportation Center and then back to Epcot. The parking lot at Epcot is almost empty. We make the final journey back to the van.
We are exhausted, lighter in the wallet, and ready to find a resting place. Disney worked its magic for our family once again.

 

[mickeymom55]

WOW - sounds like you had a fun packed time!! FP is a wonderful thing - from your report, it helped you maximized your park time. Thanks for sharing.