WDW w/ a First Timer! Details, Pics, and More...

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Hi everyone! I posted this on another board but got so busy that I didn't have a chance to post it here on the DIS!

This is going to be a really detailed trip report, so I hope it will satisfy the obsessive WDW lovers as well as offering some ideas for those of you who are planning your first WDW vacation. I'll do my best to keep it as spoiler-free as possible.

This is my first trip report ever, so please let me know what you think! I'm also happy to answer any questions you might have.

First, a little background.


The Players

There were only two of us on this trip.

Me: I'm a 20-something guy who loves WDW, but isn't able to afford to go very often. I've been several times, but one trip every 2-3 years is about the most I can handle financially. I love to take friends who are first-timers and show them around.

DF: In keeping with the popular WDW board terminology, I'll refer to my friend as "DF" (for "Dear Friend"). DF is a 20-something guy and a good friend of mine who has never been to any Disney park. He has a few favorite Disney movies but isn't a huge Disney fan. I had to really talk him into this trip, and he wasn't sure what we could possibly do for a week at WDW. I'm not sure how I managed to talk him into going with me, but thankfully I did!


The Package

We purchased a 7-day, 6-night package from the Walt Disney Travel Co. We opted for tickets with both the Plus and Park Hopper options (gotta do this right!) and a room at All-Star Movies. We also added the Dining Plan option, which we had already purchased before the free dining promotion started. Luckily, I called and was able to get them to switch us to the free version, so it knocked a ton of money off our trip price! Woohoo!

We paid for everything up front, so we didn't have to spend a dime on food or attractions while we were there. Everything we ate or experienced was covered under our package.


The Dates

We went September 11-17, 2005, which was most definitely one of the slowest times of year, so we were able to fit a lot more in than usual.


The Planning

I didn't want to overplan, but I did make dinner reservations ahead of time, read up on attractions I hadn't yet seen, and decide what to pack well in advance. I did not make a "commando schedule."



Things I'm Really Glad We Packed

- a really small backpack - Got it at Target; it's much smaller than a regular backpack and the perfect size for carrying a couple of snacks and other necessities without slowing us down.
- sunscreen - A must for a fair-skinned guy like me.
- hats - I've got a shaved head. This is a no-brainer!
- small battery-operated fan - Got it at Wal-mart. Much smaller than the big sprayer ones, and it kept us cool while waiting in the sun. Everyone around us was jealous.
- a small notebook - Got it at Target. It fit in my hand, and I used it to make notes about wait times and experiences so I could share them with all of you! Also, I wrote all my reservation numbers in it before leaving, just in case there was a problem.
- ponchos - Even though we didn't need them.
- digital camera - Pictures make nice memories. I refuse to keep my face in a camcorder all trip, though, so I didn't bring one.
- sanitary hand wipes - Great for right before snacks.
- meclizine hydrochloride - Motion sickness pills. This particular type is marketed as "Dramamine Less Drowsy Formula," but I got a generic version at Target that was much cheaper and just as effective.


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Sunday: The Arrival Day

Before leaving home for the airport, DF and I made sure to put our Magical Express tags (the yellow sticky ones, not the castle tags) on our checked baggage. They had arrived in plenty of time in advance.

We flew Delta. Upon arriving at the Orlando airport, we had very little trouble locating the Magical Express folks waving their Mickey gloves. It took us a minute, but we found them. They told us where to go and what to do, and in no time at all we were boarding a Magical Express bus.

Only, our Magical Express bus wasn't really a Magical Express bus. It was a Mears bus, and still had the "gratuities appreciated" sign up at the front. The driver's name (judging from the nameplate) was Craig Timmerman. He was fun and definitely helped us get in the mood for a Disney vacation. DF and I sat near one of the bus's video monitors, but we did not have a Magical Express video (or any other video) to watch. Instead, it was just a normal Mears bus ride. Craig explained that they didn't have enough ME buses, but didn't make any mention of the video.

We arrived at All-Star Movies and were greeted by Cast Member Gary at the check-in desk. Gary was awesome. He made us feel very welcome, and confirmed that we did have a room in Toy Story (which we had requested). Yay!

We headed straight to our room in the Buzz building. At this point I noticed something odd. For those of you who have never been, there is a courtyard area between the Buzz and Woody buildings that is designed to look like a larger-than-life version of Andy's room from Toy Story. The door was there, and so were the blocks and giant checkerboard, but that was it. I was certain that Rex and at least one other character used to be there. Maybe they were out for refurbishment? I asked a CM, but he seemed not to have noticed the absence, and then looked around with a puzzled expression when I mentioned it to him. No biggie, but I wondered about it.


Epcot: our first park!

DF and I decided to start our vacation with a trip to Epcot. We caught the Epcot bus and headed straight for The Land, since I expected Soarin' to be fairly busy. It was 2:50 in the afternoon and both Soarin' and Living with the Land were posting 20 minute waits. We grabbed a FastPass for Living with the Land (since it has a very boring queue) and waited in line for Soarin'.

Soarin's wait felt shorter than 20 minutes, though I didn't time it. We enjoyed the queue. We got seated in row B1, which is the front, right in the middle - best seats in the house! It was a fantastic introduction to Disney for DF. He had been skeptical about this ride going in, but we both loved it and he was grinning from ear to ear when we got off. Go Disney!

We hit Living with the Land next, which was also enjoyable. Then we left the Land pavillion, which was by far the most crowded place in all of Epcot.

We used our daily Dining Plan snack for a couple of drinks and I took a motion sickness pill to prepare me for Mission:Space later on in the day. Let me tell you, these pills are amazing! I was able to ride all kinds of attractions this trip that I could never ride before. Just remember to take them at least half an hour before you do the attraction if you're prone to motion sickness.

One thing I didn't expect about the Dining Plan: you have to sign a receipt every time you use it. That was a little bit annoying, and seemed totally unnecessary for something like a drink or ice cream bar. If Wendy's doesn't make me sign a credit card receipt for my meal, why should Disney need my signature on a Dining Plan snack? I'm sure there's a reason, and it wasn't a big deal, but both DF and I noticed it.

Cyber Groove started performing some fun music while we were standing there, so we watched their performance before taking a bathroom break. We love Cyber Groove!

Next we headed to the Imagination pavillion. We did Journey Into Imagination with Figment, which DF enjoyed for what it was. (I didn't tell him about the past versions of the attraction.) We were, I think, the only ones on the ride. When we walked in, the CMs were standing around doing absolutely nothing, and I don't even think the cabs were moving. It felt like they started the whole thing up just for us. DF pointed out some movie references and puns in the queue that I had never noticed before, so we both had fun.

We spent a few minutes hanging out in the attraction area at the end of the ride, where DF created a funny virtual postcard to send to his frat brothers back home. Both of us admired the 3D photo crystals, though at $100 they were way out of our souvenir price range.

Then it was time for Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. DF is a fan of the original movies, so I figured he'd enjoy this one. We were both disappointed with the pre-show (I liked the old "True Colors" one a lot better than this one; DF didn't have anything to compare to but felt like it was a "waste of time"). We enjoyed the movie, though. I never get tired of hearing people scream when the.... oh, wait, I promised to avoid spoilers. If you've been before, you know the part I'm talking about!!

By now, my dramamine had kicked in, so I was ready for Mission:Space. The theming of this attraction is spectacular! It was a first for DF and I, and we both enjoyed it. I was sad, though, to see that the Cast Members working there seemed to be among the least enthusiastic Disney employees I encountered during our entire trip. (The only ones worse were at UoE later on.) The CM who boarded our group looked like someone had filled her full of tranquilizers and forced her to move haystacks one straw at a time. But nothing could keep M:S from being a fun experience for DF and I. I was so glad I got to experience it, and it was much less intense than I'd imagined it would be. (Thanks, dramamine!)

In the post-ride area, two of the "Postcards from Space" booths weren't working properly, but DF finally managed to send a fun video of himself back home. He got a kick out of it, while I made a CM aware of the broken booths. He promised to make maintenance aware of the problem.

And now it was dinner time! DF and I were starving, so we were ready for the first of the advanced reservations I had made. Tonight's selection: Concourse Steakhouse at the Contemporary.

We took the monorail over to the Contemporary (I've always thought that was cool!) and got seated immediately at the Steakhouse, even though we were 15 minutes early for our 7:00 reservation. Our server, Jimmy, was a decent server but not really very personable. The food, however, was quite yummy, and with the Dining Plan, there was lots of it! For appetizers, I ordered Shellfish Bisque (yum!) and DF ordered Honey Sesame Chicken Wings (also yum! I got to try some!). I thoroughly enjoyed my Seared Yellow Fin Tuna, and DF absolutely adored his Filet Mignon. On our server's recommendation, I tried the cobbler, which was good; DF loved the chocolate cake he ordered, and thought the presentation was cool.

We also had a great time watching some of the kids at a nearby table. The child's menu offers "Painter's Pallet" cookies that allow kids to decorate their own cookies with real paintbrushes and different colors of icing. It was the most creative dessert I think I've ever seen, and it almost made me wish I had a kid with me just to have an excuse to order one.

Hey, I said "almost."

Thankfully, we didn't have kids, because the night wasn't over yet! We left (very full) to catch the monorail to the Magic Kingdom, where a super-friendly PhotoPass CM (I wish I had gotten her name!) took our pictures in front of the castle. We got seats for Wishes about 30 minutes ahead of time, and it was totally worth it! We even got to see Tink fly. Woohoo! Wishes turned out to be DF's favorite nighttime show.

We hung around for a while after the show until the crowds were more manageable, then caught our bus back home. Our driver, Diane, was amazing - the best bus driver we had during our entire trip. She chatted with the guests and kept the kids entertained with trivia and singing. It was a truly magical end to a magical first day at the park.

We got back to the resort, swam for a bit in the Fantasia Pool, then headed to bed.

[continued in next post]

 

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Monday: The Magic Kingdom Day


DF and I got up at 9 a.m. when Mickey -- I mean Stitch -- called to wake us up in the morning. Today, we'd decided, was our Magic Kingdom day, since DF had so far only seen the MK at night.

When we arrived, the entrance area of Main Street was absolutely packed with people! The construction around the train station had been expanded, and it was impacting the crowd flow. A little further up Main Street, more crowds had gathered to watch the trolley show, and at the far end of Main Street, even more crowds were gathering for Cinderellabration. We bypassed all these people and headed straight for Fantasyland, which was still pretty empty.

From then until noon, we hit all the main Fantasyland attractions in rapid succession. It was great!

First, we grabbed FastPasses for Peter Pan's Flight.

Winnie the Pooh had a posted 10 minute wait, but it was basically walk-on. CM Robin at this attraction was really friendly and fun, and definitely added to our magic! DF and I both really enjoyed the detail of this ride. It's my favorite of the Fantasyland dark rides.

Snow White had no wait, so we rode that next.

DF wanted to ride Cinderella's Carousel, so we did that.

I knew DF would want to ride Mad Tea Party, but my dramamine hadn't had enough time to kick in yet, so we saw Mickey's Philharmagic next. We absolutely loved it! This turned out to be DF's favorite of the 3D movies and is the one I would most recommend. Definitely magical. DF was glad we had already done HISTA, since he felt it would have paled in comparison.

The Mad Tea Party was next; and once again, thanks to my motion sickness pills, I was able to ride a spinning ride without feeling sick! I was amazed. Yay! Oh, and riding "the teacups" was DF's dream as a child, so we finally managed to fulfill it. He was really happy.

By now it was time for our Peter Pan FPs, so we headed over there. CM Ernie joked around with us there and continued to enhance our magic. And DF loved the ride.

Small World had a 10 minute wait. It had been a long time since I was on this ride, but we enjoyed it. We got to see the clock strike twice; it struck 11:45 while we were in line and struck 12 noon just as we were unloading at the end of our ride. I'm not sure if this always happens, but we seemed to get "stuck" for a while near the end of the ride as one boat after another bumped into each other, creating a long line of boats waiting to be unloaded. DF thought something was wrong with the ride, but I know this often happens to me on Splash Mountain, so I thought maybe this is just the way the boat rides work. Anyone know?


Tomorrowland

Next we headed into Tomorrowland; DF had gotten a peek at it the night before, and really enjoyed the music and theming.

Neither Stitch nor Buzz was giving out FastPasses, so we just went straight to lunch. I had been thinking we'd eat at my favorite lunch place (Cosmic Ray's), but DF was intrigued by Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Station, so we went there (but stopped by Ray's on the way just so DF could see a few minutes of the audioanimatronic performance).

Although Cosmic Ray's was packed, Tomorrowland Terrace was practically deserted. DF loved his beef & broccoli, while I found my chicken bowl to be just okay. Still, it was a nice change of pace from the fast food options I've been used to getting at WDW counter service. We both had chocolate cake for dessert (remember, we're on the dining plan!) and ended up really, really full without even finishing it all.

After lunch, we wanted something slow to let our food digest, so we decided to ride the Carousel of Progress.

Something was wrong with the CoP, as we sat through the opening scene (the one with the CoP logo) twice and got to listen to at least a dozen announcements of "Please do not exit at this time! PLEASE do not exit at this time! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE STAY IN YOUR SEATS!!!!" before finally we started rotating and got to see the rest of the show without any glitches. DF was extremely critical of the show and thought it reflected quite poorly on WDW to have a final scene discussing technology like laserdiscs in the same "futuristic" scene with voice-operated ovens.

Judging from the reaction of DF and others in the audience to our trip on the CoP, I'd say it's doing more harm than good to have the CoP operating in its current state. I hope the rehabs happen quickly; if not, it might be a good idea to move the CoP back to seasonal status until they can be completed. Not that I have any say in anything, mind you! But I just didn't get the impression that anyone other than the die-hard WDW fans is being impressed by this attraction right now.

Next we headed to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Believe it or not, in all my years of WDW visits, I had never ridden the TTA! In the past, I'd always assumed it was a ride for tired parents and grandparents who want to sit and do nothing for a while, but it's actually a really cute minor attraction in its own right. DF and I both enjoyed it and deemed it fun and relaxing!

DF is a smoker, so he took a smoke break at this point. I'm not a smoker, so I used the time to wander around a bit. I found PUSH (the Tomorrowland talking trash can) telling stories to children who had gathered around him. When it was time for him to take a break, he said goodbye but this one child kept following him as he headed into a backstage area! Someone had to grab the child and keep him where he was supposed to be. It was pretty funny.

After that, DF and I were ready for Stitch's Great Escape. I was a huge fan of Alien Encounter, which Stitch replaced, and I had already read a number of horrible reviews of Stitch on the internet, but I was determined to keep an open mind. I decided it wasn't fair to compare Stitch to AE, and that I would try to ride it with no specific expectations. I didn't tell DF anything about the controversy, since I wanted his unbiased opinion.

The Stitch preshow, in my opinion, was fine. Yes, I liked the AE preshow more, but this isn't AE. And I know that some of the AE fans are upset at how the old AE characters were reused in this attraction. But again, this isn't AE. For what it is, I thought the preshow was fine. Not spectacular, and not terrible. It was fine.

*** Note: the following paragraph contains spoilers relating to the Stitch attraction. Please skip it if you don't want anything ruined for you. ***

And now the part I hate to admit. I really didn't enjoy the main attraction at all. I'm still not sure whether my chair just wasn't functioning properly, whether I wasn't sitting in it exactly right, or whether there just weren't many effects, but I hardly experienced any effects throughout the attraction. I kept waiting for something to happen, but aside from the chili dog smell, a couple of jumps on my shoulder, and one instance of slapping on the head, I didn't experience much of anything. The way the lights kept coming on ruined the effect for me, and I found it hard to force myself to pretend that Stitch was really in the room. I didn't feel that "lack of a coherent storyline" (as some have said) was the problem with the attraction; the storyline made perfect sense to me. For me, the problem was that the effects just didn't seem effective. Also, the restraints weren't well explained, and I think that led some people to expect more than what they got.

*** End of spoilers ***

I had expected to come back and tell you all that I thought the Stitch-haters were being too critical and that I had really enjoyed the attraction. After all, not everything has to be for adults! Sadly, I can't tell you that, because I really didn't enjoy it at all, even with no wait. DF, however, did enjoy it. Even he didn't see it as one of the park's better offerings, however.

Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin was next. DF found it difficult to tell where he was shooting and didn't seem to enjoy it that much, despite being a huge Toy Story fan. I enjoyed it more this time than I did my first time, but I still felt like it was a minor attraction. I know many others will disagree with me, and that's okay. Still, we had fun.

Then it was time for Space Mountain. I deliberately planned this to make it our first real Disney thrill ride, since I think it's much more fun if you haven't already experienced its bigger, badder cousin over at Disney-MGM Studios. I requested the front for DF, and he enjoyed it.

It was now 3 p.m., and we decided to head to the other side of the park. As we walked back through Fantasyland, I noticed that the posted wait time for Pooh had jumped up to 50 minutes! I was glad we'd ridden it that morning. Our next stop was Splash Mountain, which took us across the parade route. We had to hurry to make it to the other side before the parade got there! Luckily, we made it just in time.


Frontierland and Adventureland

We had planned to grab FastPasses for Splash Mountain next, but the FP machines weren't operating. The posted wait was 30 minutes, which was longer than DF wanted to wait, but with no FPs, we didn't have much choice. It was hot out and I was eager for a little shade and water, so I convinced DF to take the risk and get in line anyway, hoping the 30 minute wait was an overestimate.

As it turned out, we had only a 15 minute wait in the queue, followed by an additional 5 minute wait while the attraction was stalled with us getting ready to board. Finally, they got it running again and we boarded. DF and I both really enjoyed it, and for the first time in my life, I actually made it all the way to the end without getting "stuck" anywhere and playing "bumper boats" like you so often do on this ride. (We did get the bumper boat effect just before the unload, but that was it.)

Next we grabbed FastPasses for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and decided to pass the time with a round-trip tour of the Magic Kingdom on the Walt Disney World Railroad. It was a great chance to relax and chat. By the time we got off, it was time for our Big Thunder FastPasses. We didn't make any special requests, but we were put right in front, which offered a unique and fun experience. (We talked about coming back later to ride it in the very back, but we never did.) Both of us enjoyed the ride.

Pirates of the Caribbean was a walk-on, so we did that next. DF really enjoyed it! In fact, his one regret at the end of the trip was that we never made it back to ride this a second time. I was surprised at how much he appreciated Pirates. He also really enjoyed the Swiss Family Treehouse, which reminded him of seeing the movie as a kid.


Dinner and More

It was now 5 p.m. and we were both tired and hungry. Our dinner reservation wasn't for another hour at the Crystal Palace. We checked with the Palace to see if they could seat us early, but they acted like we were nuts for even asking such a thing, and told us not to bother coming back until at least within 5 minutes of our scheduled time. DF wasn't in the mood to ride any more rides at this point, so we sat and listened to Jim playing the piano on Main Street for a while. We would have stayed much longer, but the stools where we were sitting outside of Casey's seemed to be the only place in all of Disney property that had flies - and they were here in abundance.

We walked around a bit and got pictures with Prince John, chatted with some Cast Members playing with big toys (balls, hula hoops and the like), and saw Cinderellabration.

DF was eager to see Cinderellabration, since it had been advertised so heavily in advance of our trip, and he was really, really disappointed with it. I wasn't disappointed because it was exactly what I expected, and that was a show I hadn't been interested in seeing. DF had mistakenly thought that "See what happens after 'happily ever after'" meant the show would have a story to it rather than just being an elaborate coronation ceremony. Oops! Anyway, it helped pass the time in the heat until our dinner reservation time rolled around.

At 6 we checked in again at the Crystal Palace, where we were seated exactly 8 minutes later. We overheard them informing other guests that they were not taking any sort of walk-ins, so we were glad we had our reservation.

Our server's name was Pedro, and he was utterly fantastic! (We love Pedro!) I intend to write a nice letter to let Disney know how much Pedro added to the magic for us, but I'll spare you all the details here. Crystal Palace is a character buffet, so we were able to get pictures with all the Pooh characters and have some great food. In my opinion, the buffet quality was quite a bit superior to the similar-style buffets (e.g. Golden Corral) we have at home. The characters were great. I joked around with Tigger about the fact that I was wearing Tigger boxers (it's true!), which he seemed to get a kick out of. On one of my trips to the buffet, I noticed that a girl from one table had grabbed Eeyore and was trying to pull him by the arm to her table. Her table wasn't next in his rotation, but he looked helpless until a CM saw what was happening and rescued him. When Eeyore came to our table, I made a comment about "poor Eeyore" and how everyone wants to pull him in different directions. He nodded enthusiastically to this!

We left quite full, and DF wasn't ready for any more excitement, so we decided to pass the time with either the Jungle Cruise or the Tiki Room. The Jungle Cruise had a 20 minute wait posted, so we opted for the Enchanted Tiki Room Under New Management. I think I enjoyed this way more than he did. He found it a bit irritating, but personally, I love Zazu and Iago, and I found it kind of cute. Neither of us would spend time on it again anytime soon, but hey - it was a new experience, and it passed the time. We never did do the Jungle Cruise, and although I know that's tantamount to heresy in some circles, it was okay with us.

Neither DF nor I really care for parades, but I absolutely adore Spectromagic, so I couldn't miss it. We claimed our spot in Liberty Square only about 10-15 minutes before the parade, and we could see just fine. If you've never seen Spectromagic, it's a really cool parade of lights that only happens a few times a week in the Magic Kingdom. It's not the old Main Street Electrical Parade, but in my opinion it's the next best thing.

I loved Spectromagic. DF was more entertained by the family next to us, whose kid was unbelievably thrilled by every light and every float. It was great!

Now if you've been keeping score, you'll have realized there's one major Magic Kingdom attraction we hadn't yet hit at this point.

Yep, we saved the Haunted Mansion for last, because it's so much more fun to experience it in the dark, don't you think?

As far as I could tell, everything in the Haunted Mansion was operating as it should. I'm not a frequent-enough visitor to notice all the tiny details, but nothing especially obvious was malfunctioning, and our audio sounded just fine. Unfortunately, there was one huge exception to this. For some reason, Leota in the crystal ball was missing! We rode through her room, but she wasn't there. The crystal ball was empty and there was no voice to be heard. That was pretty hard to miss. Still, DF really enjoyed the Haunted Mansion, and it was one of the highlights of our day. Oh, and I want to compliment the Haunted Mansion cast; every CM we encountered there was in perfect character and added wonderfully to the creepiness of the place.

We left before Wishes, though we saw a few bits of it from our bus spot. Then we caught the bus home, and ended our day with a swim in the Fantasia Pool.


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Tuesday: Late Start, Late Finish

Sunday and Monday may not sound that intense in text, but they involved a lot of walking! DF was exhausted, so we decided to sleep in on Tuesday. After all, this is a vacation, and a weekday in September doesn't require getting to the parks when they open.

We left our room a little after noon, then waited about 25 or 30 minutes for an MGM bus. (Another group had been waiting even longer than we had. We guessed there must have been a problem, since we kept seeing buses come for the other parks but not for MGM.)


Disney-MGM Studios

At 12:50 our bus came. When we got to MGM, we headed straight for the Tower of Terror to get a FastPass, then rode the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. Both ToT and RnRC were listed as 20 minute waits, but they weren't. RnRC had about a 5 minute wait tops, not counting the preshow. We asked for the front seat the first time on, then walked back through and asked for the back seat.

Our second time through RnRC, we were only about 1/4 into the ride when suddenly all the lights came on. It looked quite a bit different this way! DF thought it was cool, but we were both glad it hadn't happened on our first ride. At the end of the ride, we had to sit tight for several minutes before we were able to unload.

After that, we headed for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. At the loading area, our bellhop's name was Brad, and he was awesome! DF was really impressed by him, and everyone in our elevator seemed to really enjoy the persona he played. Go Brad! Our second time through, we encountered Brad in the library instead. We rode the Tower a total of three times, and enjoyed it every time. Every time, we walked right on, despite the 20 minute posted wait time. The FastPass machines were running even though there wasn't really a need for them.

It was now 2:45, and I was a bit woozy from all the thrill rides in a row, so we took a break and wandered around MGM for a bit. We browsed some shops (love the villains store!), got pictures with Goofy and Lilo & Stitch, then watched Winnie the Pooh take a break from his meet and greet by dancing in the street to the "Zero to Hero" theme from Hercules! After that, we got pics with Mickey and left for the bus around 3:15.

Today, like most days of our trip, we'd had Pop Tarts in the room to tide us over until lunch. (I had also brought mini cereal boxes, thinking I'd get a refillable mug and use it to get milk every day from the food court, but that ended up being more trouble than it was worth, so we just did the Pop Tarts.) Today, however, we had taken extra snacks with us into the park, as we were skipping lunch altogether. Our dinner reservation was at the way-too-early time of 4 p.m., but with no lunch in our tummies, we were ready for it!


Lunch...or Dinner?

We took a bus to the Transportation and Ticket Center, then transferred to a Magic Kingdom monorail, and arrived just in time for our reservation at Cinderella's Royal Table. Woohoo!

We were seated immediately. The setting was beautiful, the atmosphere was terrific, and we were both referred to as "milord" throughout the meal. To top it all off, we (quite by chance) got the best table in the entire restaurant - a two-person table by the window, looking directly over Fantasyland. From our table, we got to watch the entire Sword in the Stone ceremony in front of Cinderella's Carousel. DF and I were both really impressed and would make reservations for this restaurant again in a flash!

Cool atmosphere

Check out the view from our table!

Our server's name was Tollie. He was friendly and very efficient, although he didn't seem particularly into the the royal theme of the restaurant; he acted like any server anywhere might act. Still, we couldn't complain about the service.

I ordered the Seafood Spring Roll and Spice Crusted Ahi Tuna. (I don't know why I was on such a seafood kick this trip.) DF ordered the Soup du Jour (beef barley) and Lamb Shank. We both enjoyed everything, especially the bread. Yum! And then it was time for dessert! One of the items on the dessert menu was a smoothie called Bibbiddi Bobbiddi Brew, which normally would come in a collector's mug. DF ordered the smoothie, even though he wasn't allowed to get the collector's mug on the dining plan. I ordered the white chocolate Slipper, which was special and delicious!

A Break from the Magic

On our way out, we ran into Cinderella, who allowed us to take some pictures with her. At this point, DF was ready for a bit of a "break from the magic," so he took a bus back to the hotel while I took the monorail to Epcot. We agreed to meet that evening for Fantasmic at MGM.

I rode Spaceship Earth, which I hadn't remembered as being such a jerky ride. It's still special to me, though! Then I walked through Innoventions, which mostly disappointed me, but the House of Innoventions was pretty cool. I decided I'd bring DF back to these two attractions later on in our trip.

After that, it was off to MGM. DF had gotten there first, and he had saved me a seat near the front. It was only 30 minutes before the show, and there were tons of great seats left, something you wouldn't see at the same time during peak season! Five minutes before the show, there were still empty seats and people coming in.


Nighttime Entertainment

We saw Fantasmic, and both enjoyed it, but both of us wished there had been less time spent on the "water images." The effect is quite cool, but it goes on for a huge chunk of the show. There was one major "oops" during the show; during the canoe sequence, there was a loud *snap* as one guy's oar broke in the water. He was forced to try to steer with the stick he was left holding, and that didn't work. So the canoe went way off course and took quite a while to make it backstage. Other than that, the show seemed flawless to us!

There's no direct bus to Downtown Disney, so after the show we caught a bus to Coronado Springs and transferred there. We got to Downtown Disney at 10 p.m., then spent some time oohing and ahhing over the giant Lego sculptures on our way to our late night meal at Earl of Sandwich.

Since we'd skipped lunch, we had a counter service to spare for Earl's, and it was a good thing we did! The sandwich descriptions sounded very ordinary, but they were quite yummy! They were also filling, and neither DF nor I was able to eat all our food. We saved our cookies as snacks for a later date. As always, our antibacterial wipes came in handy before the meal, as there wasn't a restroom nearby for washing our hands.

Next we hit Pleasure Island. It was way too empty. We tried several dance clubs, but it's no fun to dance with only a handful of people on the floor, so we decided to try out the Adventurer's Club instead. We were both newbies, so we wandered around looking and feeling a bit lost until some CM spotted us and asked if we wanted to watch Samantha's Cabaret, already in progress in another room. We nodded and were whisked into a room full of laughing people. A few seats were still empty, so we sat down and enjoyed what turned out to be a really funny show. DF had been a little unsure of this strange place until now, but the Cabaret was just what he needed to start laughing and enjoying himself.

We didn't stay long at the Adventurer's Club; we left after the Cabaret to catch a disappointingly unfunny show at the Comedy Warehouse. Oh well, I guess you win some and you lose some when you're doing improv. That's okay. We spent the rest of the night at Mannequins, then headed back to our resort for quick showers and bed.

[continued in next post]

 

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Wednesday: DisneyQuest and More!


After our late night at Pleasure Island, neither DF nor I had any intention of getting up early on Wednesday. In fact, we didn't get up at all until about noon. We showered and dressed quickly and caught our bus to Downtown Disney by 12:40.

By the way, let me take this opportunity to mention that mousekeeping was wonderful during our trip. We didn't receive any towel animals and we didn't have any stuffed animals for them to arrange creatively, but our beds always were nicely made, even on the days we slept in and forced them to come back over and over with us still in our rooms. At many hotels, that would mean you'd come back to an unmade bed, but not here! We had no complaints about our mousekeeping.

We walked from the Pleasure Island stop to the DisneyQuest building on the West Side. I had been to DisneyQuest before, but for some reason I didn't remember the fun elevator; perhaps it wasn't working when I was there before? I can't imagine that I just forgot it, but maybe I did. Anyway, we enjoyed it.

Our first stop was FoodQuest, where we used counter service options for lunch. I had a Teriyaki wrap and a cupcake; he had pizza and cobbler. Both our meals were decent, not great, but we weren't going to complain about free food. (Still, we both thought it would have been way overpriced if we hadn't been on the Dining Plan.)

We hit Virtual Jungle Cruise, Virtual Pirates of the Caribbean, and Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride with almost no wait. DF was a bit frustrated at the way the Aladdin game just suddenly ends without warning if you run out of time, but other than that, we enjoyed all of these.

Next was Virtual Space Mountain, where we designed and rode our own coaster. The simulator is fun, although I wish there were a way to better simulate the sensation of going down, since that's my favorite part of coasters and doesn't really come off as thrilling in the simulator.

We did Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters next, which DF seemed to enjoy much more than Space Ranger Spin in MK. He drove, while I shot people. We followed this up with Mighty Ducks Pinball Slam, which he also really enjoyed. I, on the other hand, couldn't get into it at all. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but it seemed impossible to control!

We finished up with Invasion!, Ride the Comix, and some classic arcade games (pinball, skeeball, Dance Dance Revolution, Ms. Pac-Man, etc.) Two of the pinball machines weren't working, but everything else was fun. We had a blast, and almost everything was completely deserted!

We left DisneyQuest by 4 p.m., did a little shopping on the West Side, and caught a bus to the Boardwalk.

While waiting for the bus, DF was thirsty, so I put a dollar bill in one of the drink machines, foolishly thinking they were only $1 per bottle. Big mistake. After the machine ate my dollar, I realized two things: 1) The drinks are $2.50, not $1.00; and 2) I didn't have any more dollar bills on me to give the machine. As a result, we didn't get our drink and I couldn't get my dollar back. That ended up being the only dollar we spent on food during our entire stay, and we didn't even get anything for it!

Our Boardwalk bus ride was a bit of an adventure, as someone had decided to paint something at the bus entrance to the Boardwalk, and no one had informed the bus drivers. Our driver took some time to figure out how to get in, but the situation was finally resolved and we made it in.


Can't Stay Away from Epcot!

From the Boardwalk, we walked to Epcot. We watched the World Showcase Players do their rendition of King Arthur and the Holy Grail, then walked to Future World and the Universe of Energy.

The World Showcase Players crown their next victim

Ellen's Energy Adventure, the attraction in the Universe of Energy pavillion, is my personal favorite attraction at Epcot. I never miss it. Unfortunately, our experience this time around was a bit less than stellar. We arrived at the attraction to see a rope across the entrance and the door closed, with no cast member in sight. There was no indication that the attraction was running or that this was the entrance, although I knew from past experience that it was. We stood there for a while as other guests came and left, apparently thinking the attraction was closed. Finally, DF went to find another cast member to see what was going on, and while he was gone, a cast member came from inside the building, took down the rope, and opened the door without explanation. "Go on in," she said in a bored voice.

DF and I both thoroughly enjoyed the show, though we were extremely disappointed with the attractions CMs. We got the impression that management had written off the UoE and assigned the D-list of all CMs to run it. Maybe we just caught it on an off day, but I fondly remembered other experiences with happy, fun CMs at this attraction in the past. I hope our experience was the exception rather than the rule these days.

After Ellen, it was time for our 6:30 reservation at Chefs de France. We walked to France and were seated immediately. The food at this restaurant is absolutely amazing. For appetizers, DF ordered the cheese plate and I ordered the Tarte a la Flamme Alsacienne. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. My appetizer was HUGE! It was like an entire pizza for an appetizer. I saw others with equally surprised reactions to this dish, so I'm not the only one! It was also delicious. For entrees, DF ordered the tenderloin and I had the duck l'orange. For dessert, I ordered chocolate cake with apricots (moist and yummy without being overly rich) and DF had apple crumble, which he loved. We agreed this was the best food we had during our entire stay at Disney. Absolutely fantastic.

Our service, on the other hand, was only fair. Our server, Amandine, was very nice but my glass sat empty for quite some time without a refill. Even so, we would recommend Chefs de France to anyone looking to make the most of their dining plan.

After dinner we headed to Test Track. We had gone for FastPasses when we first arrived, but the machine malfunctioned so a CM had given us a pass good for anytime. Now we decided to put it to use. It was 8:00.

The FastPass was basically useless because there was no line anyway, despite a posted 20 minute wait. We walked in and were seated immediately in our car. It took a moment before I realized what was missing: no preshow! Somehow they were bypassing the preshow entirely. You might think this is dumb, but I really enjoy the preshows, and I feel that it sets up Test Track in a really nice way. The ride isn't the same without it. I was kind of disappointed. DF was disappointed in the ride overall; he felt it was "not much."

We decided not to stay for IllumiNations, as we knew we'd be back in Epcot later in the week for another dinner reservation, and DF was tired. On our way out, we rode Spaceship Earth. We seemed to be the only ones on the ride; the CMs at the exit told us it had been at least 5 minutes since the last guest they saw.

Back at our resort, DF went for a dip in the pool while I went straight to bed. On our way back to the room, we finally redeemed a "free pin and lanyard" coupon that had come with our Magical Express materials. I let DF keep it as a souvenir. He traded it with a CM later in our trip for a Goofy pin, which he kept.



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Thursday: Our First Water Park


We caught our bus to Typhoon Lagoon about 10:30 on Thursday morning. I had been carrying a small backpack into all the parks, but I debated about whether to take it to the water park. I decided to take it so I'd have a change of clothes and a place to store the room keys. (In hindsight, we decided it wasn't worth it.)

This was the first and only time our bus stopped at the other All Stars (Music and Sports) on our way to a park. We arrived at Typhoon Lagoon at 10:49.

I should have known this in advance, but we were a bit surprised that locker rentals were $5. I had thought they were less for some reason, although I'm sure I must have read the correct price online before leaving. There is an additional $5 deposit required; we got this back when we turned in our key.

Typhoon Lagoon had some really fun attractions! Our only major complaint was that we found it extremely difficult to navigate. The new attraction, Crush 'n' Gusher, was being heavily promoted on TV at our resort, but it wasn't even on the park maps. The standing maps at the entrance and a couple of other places had CnG "written in" with a big X where it should go, but there was no indication of what path might take you there, and we noticed quite a few other guests wandering around looking for it, just as we were. The "handout" maps were outdated and pretty useless anyway once they got wet, and most paths had no signs to help guide you in the right direction unless you already had an idea of how to get around the park. It would be very easy to miss major attractions entirely and not even know they were there!

On the positive side, the park was almost empty; there was virtually no wait for anything. We did all three Crush 'n' Gushers (banana was our favorite, followed by coconut), rode Humunga Cowabunga twice, did one storm slide, hung out in the lazy river, and then hit another Crush 'n' Gusher and the wave pool all in less than two hours. When we left at 12:40, we noticed the crowds beginning to pick up a bit.

Both of us loved Crush 'n' Gusher! It was my favorite of all the water attractions at both parks. DF loved Cowabunga, but I found it a bit jarring and uncomfortable. All in all, though, we really enjoyed our time at TL.


MGM: Beyond ToT and RnRC

Our bus picked us up almost immediately. We got back to ASMo, changed, and were waiting for our MGM bus at 1:25. While waiting, we split one of our leftover cookies from Earl of Sandwich. Once we got there, we headed straight for Toy Story Pizza Planet. I had promised DF we'd eat there since he's a Toy Story fan.

Personally, I hated the pizza at Pizza Planet, but DF liked it. And while I wish the place could have been better themed (why not the automatic doors like in the movie?), DF thought it was great and took pictures. We laughed, though, at how badly his pizza was cut.

Look at the cut lines on this pizza!

After lunch we headed to Muppetvision 3D. We arrived just as the doors were opening, which left us with a dilemma. Do we go in and miss the preshow? Or do we wait and catch it from the beginning? We opted to stay and watch the preshow from the beginning. This gave us a chance to check out a lot of the fun gags around the room as well.

After the movie, we did some photo ops with nearby Toy Story characters. Woody and Buzz both had lines, while a green toy soldier was virtually ignored. (Awww, sad! ) The most interesting experience we had was with Woody. We were in line to see him when the CM with him said, "Everyone, the line is against that rope... please move to that rope." Well, we moved, but most of the rest of the line didn't. Other mothers seized this opportunity to push their children in front of us to meet Woody, while we stood patiently by the rope. I pulled out my PhotoPass and held it where the CM could see we were waiting, but she seemed to have forgotten about us and was helping all the moms and their kids. Finally, as Woody finished signing an autograph for a kid, he walked past the rest of the kids over to DF and me, took the PhotoPass right out of my hand, and carried it over to the CM. "Wow!" I said to DF. "Woody just stuck up for us!" As DF was getting his picture taken with Woody, he grinned and asked, "Am I your favorite deputy?" Woody nodded. It made the day for both of us.

We went to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playset next; it was the other thing DF had wanted to do since he was a little kid, and it was a first for both of us. We got some great photos, including one of me riding the giant ant and waving my hat in the air. It made us feel like kids again!

I suggested we do the Backlot Tour next, even though it was very hot out and DF was getting ready for something indoors. This was a mistake. We got in line around 3:45 and waited about 15-20 minutes for our tram. Although that isn't much in the summer, it was a long wait for us compared to our prior experiences of the week, and we were both hot and tired and not eager to wait in a long outside line. DF wasn't impressed with the backlot tour, and I resolved not to do it on my next trip.

We used our snacks for a couple of Cokes on our way to the Great Movie Ride, which we both enjoyed. After that, we headed to Lights, Motors, Action! We got seats with no trouble, arriving only 5 minutes before the show was to start. Stunt shows aren't really my cup of tea, but this one was well-done and entertaining.

Star Tours had no wait, so we did that next. Somehow it seemed a lot more fun after all the sitting we had been doing; I was glad we didn't do it after a thrill ride.

At 6:40, we headed back to the Tower of Terror for another trip on the doomed elevator. As before, it was essentially a walk-on attraction, even though it had a 20 minute posted wait time. You know how, in the boiler room, the line forks, and there's a sign telling you to use both sides? Well, everyone else was going one way, so DF and I went the other way. We ended up on an elevator all by ourselves while people who went the other way were having to wait for another elevator. When we got off the elevator at the end of the ride, the unloading CM commented about there being only two of us. I responded, "I don't know what happened; the elevator was full when we started!"

Our favorite Tower CM, Brad, was working today as well, and he seemed to get a kick out of our story about being the only two on our elevator. As before, he made our experience more fun. We rode twice, with different experiences each time, then headed to dinner.


A Change in Dinner Plans

Our reservation for tonight was at Liberty Tree Tavern in the Magic Kingdom, but we had been having so much fun at MGM that we decided to live dangerously and give up our reservation in hopes of finding a restaurant at MGM where we could walk in. We opted for the 50s Prime Time Cafe, and boy are we glad we did! This ended up being one of our favorite dining experiences of the week. The food was great, and the service was spectacular! DF talked more about this meal than about any of our others after the trip was over.

Love that atmosphere!

When we arrived at 50s Prime Time and asked about getting a table as walk-ins, it was 7:20. They told us they could seat us in 25 minutes or less, and checked to make sure we weren't planning to see Fantasmic, since we wouldn't be done in time. (We weren't, but bonus points for them for asking!) Their estimate of 25 minutes or less was true, since we were seated in 5 minutes.

Our server was "Aunt" Susan, and she was great! Another server, whom she referred to as "Little Mom," was also wonderful and added to the atmosphere tremendously. The banter was really fun; for instance, Aunt Susan asked DF (whose hair was getting a bit long) what he had done with the money Mom gave him for a haircut!

For appetizers, DF ordered fried cheese and I ordered the seafood dip. I wasn't crazy about the dip, but it was all right. Both of us ordered fried chicken, which was great! For dessert, DF ordered a hot fudge sundae, and I ordered smores. The smores were my favorite dessert of the week. Yum! On our way out, "Little Mom" called after us, "Make sure you wait an hour before going swimming!"

We left at 8:30, caught our bus back to ASMo, then changed and left for Pleasure Island around 9:20. We shopped at World of Disney a bit, where I saw a shirt that I toyed with buying but didn't, then later regretted it when I couldn't find it anywhere else and didn't have time to go back. Oh well!

DF and I went in different directions at Pleasure Island; he danced at a few clubs and then headed home after the midnight countdown, while I stuck around Mannequins all night. Mannequins had been pretty empty on Tuesday, but on Thursdays, a lot of cast members go to let loose, so it was much more packed. A word to the wise: if you're in any way offended by public displays of affection between young gay guys, avoid Mannequins like the plague on Thursday nights! It's much tamer than an average gay club, but it's definitely gay, and it can get surprisingly hot and heavy for Disney. I stayed until Mannequins closed, then caught the ASMo bus home and went to bed.

[just one more post to go...]

 

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Friday: The Last Full Day!


Friday was our Animal Kingdom day, so we had planned to get up early to catch the animals at their most active. Unfortunately, DF stayed up to wait for me the night before, so he was tired and not ready to get up early. Once again we were catching a bus around noon. I kept thinking how glad I was we were going in the slow season!

DF, to be honest, didn't really want to go to Animal Kingdom. He had grown up with parents who were much more in love with zoos than he, so he had been forced to endure countless live animal exhibits as a kid and had grown to despise them. I kept trying to convince him that Animal Kingdom was "nahtazu," but he didn't really buy it. So he wasn't eager for this part of our trip. I was going to have to prove him wrong.

Upon arriving at Animal Kingdom, we headed straight for Kilimanjaro Safari, the one live animal attraction at AK that I insist on doing every time I go. Wow, I had forgotten how far apart everything in this park is! It was hot, and we were tired out just walking from place to place. There was no wait at the Safari, though even just walking through the queue line seemed to take forever.

Our driver for this safari was Barbara. Folks, I simply cannot say enough good things about this woman. She was by far the most amazing KS driver I've ever had. I've always considered KS to be one of AK's best attractions, but I had never seen it as one of WDW's overall best attractions until this trip. Barbara is absolutely fantastic. She really got into the storyline - not in a corny way the way a lot of Great Movie Ride drivers do, but in a truly genuine way. She had me convinced that she was really surprised and amazed to see each of the animals we saw, and made all of us feel like we were having a rare and precious experience. I knew from past trips that there were a lot of animals we didn't see, but it didn't feel that way. Instead, every animal we did see felt like something we had encountered in the wild. And when there were no animals, Barbara had jokes and interesting bits of trivia to share. Again, I know that all the KS drivers do this, but she did it like it was something she had just thought of, not like she was reciting a pre-scripted spiel. It felt as if this was her first time doing this safari in a while, and everything interested her. I don't know how she's able to maintain that level of interest and enthusiasm over and over throughout the day, but it was definitely one of the biggest highlights of the trip for DF and me.

Thanks to Barbara, DF's attitude towards AK seemed to shift after the safari. He hadn't wanted to do any live animal attractions, but we both really enjoyed KS, and it did seem to convince him that AK was more than just a glorified zoo.

For lunch, I had planned on Flame Tree Barbecue, but DF didn't see anything there that he liked, so we headed over to Pizzafari. (DF loves his pizza.) Surprisingly, DF didn't care much for the pizza at Pizzafari, and I thought he had never met a pizza he didn't like! I ordered a parmesan chicken sandwich, which was dry and bland. My chocolate cake, however, was fantastic.

At 1:50 we headed for It's Tough to be a Bug after I took a dramamine to prepare for Primeval Whirl later on. DF took a quick smoke break, remarking that the smoking areas throughout WDW are well placed but ought to be more clearly marked, since they were often difficult to find, even with a map, without asking a cast member. Not being a smoker myself, I had never noticed this, but tended to agree with his assessment.

The queue area running through the Tree of Life is really cool. For the first time in our trip, we ended up in a theater with lots of screaming kids, making it a bit difficult to hear some of the dialogue. Still, we enjoyed the show.

Next we headed to Dinoland. There was no wait for Dinosaur!, which we rode and both loved. I noticed that they did start the preshow before most people were in the room, which is a shame since I'm such a preshow fan and hate for anyone to miss the cool backstory. Thankfully, DF and I were among the first in the room, so we didn't miss it.

As we walked toward's Chester & Hester's Dinorama, I told DF a bit about the controversy surrounding the land. I explained the intended theme (the idea of a couple setting up a cheap carny-style amusement park to cash in on the dino craze), and the view of the detractors, that even intentional tackiness is still tacky. Interestingly, DF appreciated and enjoyed the theme; he liked looking for details like the painted-over license plates that had been turned into signs. I didn't mention to him that I happen to be one of the detractors who thinks that Dinorama is still an eyesore even though it's designed that way.

I had never ridden Primeval Whirl out of fear of motion sickness. I normally can't do any rides that spin. But this time, having taken my dramamine, I was prepared. I wasn't prepared for the 15 minute wait in the heat, however. Again, I realize that I'm spoiled; a 15-minute wait is nothing to a summer crowd. But when major attractions had zero wait, it seemed strange that a minor attraction like Primeval Whirl (which doesn't even have a fun queue line) would be running with a 15-minute wait, particularly since they were not running their FastPass machines and only had one side of the attraction operating. I asked one of the CMs about the FastPass machine, and was told that with "only" a 15-minute wait, they didn't think it was necessary to turn it on. I didn't say anything, but I think the hot, sweaty, tired people in our queue line might have begged to differ.

I actually enjoyed Primeval Whirl. It is what it is, and it's not a major attraction, but it was more fun than I expected. It's also a bit of a jerky ride; DF and I kept slamming into each other and the other two people in our car. But we had fun.

After our long wait, we were ready to get wet, so we made our last stop at Kali River Rapids. Again, there was no wait here. We enjoyed the ride, though DF thought it needed to either be longer or rougher, as it's a fairly tame ride. One guy in our ride got soaked! The rest of us really didn't, but we had fun. When we got to the end, there was no one waiting to get on, so the CM asked if we'd like to ride again. We said sure, and just stayed on through a second go-round. The same guy got soaked the second time! We all laughed about it.

We opted not to see any of the AK shows, and instead headed straight to the exit. We had more plans for this day...


Ahhhh, Refreshing Water!

We caught a bus to ASMo, where we changed quickly and headed back out to Blizzard Beach. Finally, a chance to get wet!

We made it to Blizzard Beach at 4:25, only an hour and a half before park closing time. That was okay; we didn't intend to stay too long. This time around, I didn't bring my backpack; we just left our towels on a chair with our room keys hidden in them, and had no problem. And we saved the five bucks for a locker!

We rode the chairlift first, which helped us see how the park was laid out a little better, although the line was longer than we should have waited for. We then went right for Summit Plummet, which scared DF half to death but was such a rush! Whooooo!

After that we did the Teamboat Springs and Runoff Rapids a couple of times, then headed back to Summit Plummet for a second ride. We were both in pain by this point, but we were having fun! We decided to hang out in the lazy river (Cross Country Creek) for a little while to recover from all the stair-climbing and the hip-bashing of SP. I noticed some interesting cave markings inside the Cross Country Creek cave, but went by them before I could figure out what they meant. We ended up leaving before closing time, exhausted but happy.


The Doomed Epcot Night?

Our dinner reservation for the evening was at Le Cellier in Epcot. This is when I suddenly realized my mistake. We had avoided seeing IllumiNations on our earlier Epcot night, thinking we'd see it when we returned on Friday, but I had forgotten that our Friday night reservation was at 8:50, too late to eat before IllumiNations. What would we do? We decided to cross our fingers and hope for the best.

We made it to Epcot at 6:45 after stopping by our room to change. I really wanted DF to see House of Innoventions, so we raced there, only to be told that the last tour started at 6:45 and we were a few minutes too late. DF was disappointed! I started worrying; was this day going to turn out badly after all?

We stopped by a snack stand for a popcorn and two Cokes, then started our tour of World Showcase. We rode El Rio del Tiempo in Mexico, then had Maelstrom break down on us while we were in line. What a night this was turning out to be!

We shopped a bit in Italy and Japan; DF bought some strawberry Pocky for me, knowing it's one of my favorites. We went to see The American Adventure, but we had just missed a showing, and we didn't have enough time to wait for the next one. Again, bummer! There was also some kind of Kawasaki Motors convention going on, and the attendees were marching in a small parade around the pavillion.

DF loves France, so we watched Impressions de France, which he enjoyed. Then we shopped a bit in France as well.

We walked to Canada and, with fingers crossed, checked in early at Le Cellier. I told them of our predicament, how I'd foolishly planned to see IllumiNations this night without realizing how late our reservation was, and how my friend had never been and was really looking forward to the show. They were super-accomodating! They seated us immediately (even though we were early) and told us to explain the situation to our server, Jason. Jason told us this happens all the time, and suggested that we order first and then he'd hold our food until after the show. Yay!

The pretzel bread was delicious. When it was time for IllumiNations, DF and I went outside to see it. DF liked it, but his one complaint was that he had heard it involved lasers and had been hoping that more was done with the lasers besides just lines across the sky. The fireworks, however, he thought were great.

After the show, we returned to our table. We had the cheddar cheese soup as an appetizer. It was wonderful! DF ordered the prime rib, and I ordered the salmon. DF's steak was a bit too fatty for his tastes, but I really enjoyed my salmon. I was too full for dessert, but DF ordered the chocolate whiskey cake and said it was great!

Our food runner joked with us a bit as he brought our food; he asked if we were cast members, to which I replied that I seem to get asked that a lot and I'm not sure why. I told him that other CMs had asked in the past if I was CP. He laughed and said, "Next time they ask you that, tell them you're PX. It will freak them out." I inquired as to what PX meant; he said it referred to corporate VIPs. We laughed about that one. He said I must get asked if I'm a cast member because I look "friendly" (are the guests really that bad?) and remarked that when he took a second look, he could tell that DF wasn't a CM because his hair was too long. We told him what our server had said the other night at 50s Prime Time Cafe, and he got a laugh out of that.

After dinner, we caught a bus home, chatted a bit with a somewhat tipsy mother and daughter who had been doing some Epcot drinking , then packed as much as we could and were in bed by midnight.



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Saturday: Going Home

We were up, packed, showered, and out the door by 10. After his shower, DF came out of the bathroom with a strange expression on his face. "The shampoo and soap dispenser is gone!" he said incredulously.

I went in to check, and sure enough - the shampoo/soap dispenser which had been there throughout our trip had mysteriously vanished. Moreover, it had left no trace of ever having been there - no markings or holes of any kind. It was as if we were in a totally different bathroom that never had a shampoo dispenser. It was only at this point that I noticed mousekeeping had left us a bottle of shampoo and a Mickey bath bar, which they hadn't until now. This left DF and I scratching our heads, but we continued on with our day.

The Magical Express airline check-in line at our resort was verrrrry long. We were in line about 40 minutes to check in our luggage.

That's the check-in point wayyy up in the top-right corner of the picture.

Thankfully, our MGM bus came right away, and we were on the road by 10:50. (We were determined to get some last park fun in before our evening flight!)


Last Chance: MGM

DF had wanted to see the Beauty & the Beast show, while I had wanted to see Voyage of the Little Mermaid. We agreed to see them separately and meet at whichever show got out last. I had never seen VotLM, so this was a new experience for me. The waiting room was well themed, but really needed some kind of a preshow; it's a long wait to not have anywhere to sit or anything to do. The show, however, was great! I hadn't expected to get rained on! DF met me outside of VotLM and told me he had really enjoyed his show as well.

We got pictures with Donald, then had a noon lunch at the Commissary. It wasn't amazing food, but it was pretty good by Disney counter service standards.


Last Chance: Epcot

After that, we were done with MGM, so we caught our Epcot bus at 12:40. I was determined that DF would get a chance to see House of Innoventions, so we went straight there. We had a bit of a wait for our tour, but we finally got to do it, and DF loved it. (Yay!)

We shopped a bit at MouseGear, got FastPasses to Soarin', then booked it all the way across Epcot to the USA pavillion so I could see The American Adventure. (Isn't my friend nice for running all over the world so I can see a show? ) We caught it at 2:15, and I loved the show!

Then we stopped for Mickey bars, using our last two snack options, and DF took a smoke break before we walked to Norway. This time we got to ride Maelstrom, which was okay but wouldn't have been worth a trip back just for that. Be warned that when you go on this ride, they force you to exit into a movie, and even though you can bypass the movie, you still have to wait for them to open the doors and let you walk through multiple rooms, including shops that seem to never end!

Then it was off to Soarin' for the last ride of our trip. Our CM this time around had a slightly different spiel, and joked, "In the unlikely event of a water landing, we will be serving fish." We were in the front row again, but this time on the far right hand side. I was in the rightmost seat, with DF to my left. It was still a great experience, though I thought it was better in the middle.


Last Chance: Magic Kingdom

It was time for us to head back for our Magical Express bus, but there was one last thing to do. DF had enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean and had toyed with the idea of getting a souvenir from their shop, but hadn't done it. Now he wanted one. We didn't really have time, but we decided to do it anyway. We caught the monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center, then to the Magic Kingdom. DF stayed outside while I sprinted into the park and all the way to the Pirates shop, bought the souvenir he wanted, then sprinted back to the exit. We just missed our bus, so we ended up getting back to the resort at 5:25 for the Magical Express bus we were supposed to catch at 4:45. Oops!


Magical Express Back Home

Thankfully, all was not lost. I talked to a CM at the resort, who gave us a voucher to get on another Magical Express bus. While I was talking to her, DF stopped by the resort store to get a t-shirt I'd been lusting after. Sadly, they had it in S and XL only, not in my size. Boohoo!

The Magical Express bus was already out front, so we boarded it right away. No one was there to take our voucher. The driver showed up after a while and we were off at 5:45. This, unlike our bus from the airport, was a real Magical Express bus. It was much prettier inside! We made extended stops at All-Star Music and All-Star Sports, finally leaving the All Stars at 6:00. At this point a "Disney's Magical Express" animation started playing on our monitors, over and over. Then our bus turned into Coronado Springs, where we made another stop, leaving at 6:10.

A Magical Express goodbye video came on at this point. It was cute! After that, the Magical Express animation came back with the words "Orlando International Airport to Walt Disney World Resort." Hmmm, I didn't think we were supposed to be seeing that one, but we did for the rest of the trip. I also noticed that one of the screens had image burn from the Magical Express logo, so I wondered whether the animation was supposed to be turned off at some point. Oh well, no biggie.

We made it to the airport in plenty of time for our flight home. Everything went smoothly, and soon we were bidding Orlando goodbye and headed back to the real world. How sad! But we have lots of great pictures and memories from our trip, and DF is already talking about wanting to go back again with his family. Another convert! Woohoo!


Thanks for reading our very detailed trip report... if you have any questions or comments, just send 'em my way!

-p.b.

 

[suevee]

I was really in need of a Disney fix and your report did the trick. It makes it easier to wait until March!! Thank you for all your work and details.

 

[Bee]

You did a great job! We (me,dh, and 2dd 11 and 9) are going to ASMo on 10-22 to 10-27 then a Wonder Cruise... cant wait!!

Thanks again!!

 

[VanniGirl]

Sounds like you had a great trip - thanks for sharing!!

 

[snwwhite]

Thank you!! I love detailed trip reports. Glad you and your friend had such a good time!!

 

[Cinerama]

Loved your report...thanks so much for taking the time to write!

 

[JustInLouisville]

Great writing style - loved your report!

 

[heaven2dc]

Great report! (bet your fingers are tired )

In response to Alien Encounter, when we were there in 1997, I was really disappointed with the effects - kept waiting for something scary to happen. Maybe it was like when you were there for Stitch - I felt I was either in the wrong seat or maybe was just too hyped up but never even felt a breath down my neck (however, Darth Vadar kept following me after pics w/him and that was enough breathing!!)

Enjoyed your pics also - we really loved Prime Time cafe - had a great "cousin" who we stuck my DBIL with because we put our leftovers in his potpie under a napkin when he left to use the bathroom. Funny...he's not speaking to me now....

 

[Credit Man]

Thanks for the great report!

 

[eeyore45]

Just wanted to let you know I appreciated your detailed trip reports - I love the details, and the inclusion of pictures!!

For me, it was a great way to spend the afternoon while the class (I'm a substitute teacher) was taking a test!! (altho they didnt appreciate it when I did LOL!! "what's so funny?" um never mind!!! *grin)

 

[TinkyBelle]

That was a wonderful report and you are obviously a very good friend. I don't think that I could stay in a room with some of my friends for a week, even at Disney World. I happen to be something of an airhead and a DramQueen! Don't know how the Husband puts up with me!!!
I am so looking forward to our trip in December, thanks for the quick fix.