We Braved The Dreaded "JERSEY WEEK" And Actually Survived!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pics added

[podroma7]

The DIS
I became a member of the DIS roughly 4-5 months before our trip to WDW and as a result was instantly hooked. As soon as our trip was finished I knew that I had to write a trip report because I was very thankful for those trip reports I read before our trip. Every little thing I could think about researching through the DIS, I was here searching for it. When I realized that our trip (Nov 8-13) was going to fall on Super Soap Weekend (SSW), the famous “Jersey Week”, and the last weekend of the Food & Wine Festival at Epcot, I started to freak out and found myself on the DIS at all hours of the day. I even got to the point where I took my own polls by reading other posts on Jersey Week to see what people said about it. (most said it wasn’t bad)

So here is who we are:

LA – my wife and first time visitor to WDW
PD – me last time visiting WDW was over 10 years ago

We live in Carrollton, Georgia (outside of Atlanta) and we were looking at a 7-8 hour trip. Again, I did so much research on how long it would take us, how much we would spend on gas, and what the best route was to take. (For those that are able to take the Western Beltway Hwy 429, I highly recommend it)

Brief pre-trip report:

Like many of you, our trip kind of creeped up on us after many months of anticipation. We had so much to do before our trip but not enough time to actually get ready for it. But when all was said and done, we were ready. We had planned on leaving on Nov 8th around 6:00am. (driving) So luck would have it, we could not sleep and ended up leaving sometime around 5:30am which was a great start to our long awaited vacation.


Actual Trip Report:

Thursday, Nov 8, 2008

The Drive
Like I said before, we were on the road at 5:30am and were very excited. I started off the driving and drove until we hit the Ga/Fl border and it only took us about 4 hours an 15 minutes. We stopped in Griffin, Ga on our way to I-75 for a quick bathroom break (LA has a small bladder) and were on our way. We stopped at the Florida Visitors Center just across the border for some brochures and OJ and were on our way into Florida. LA drove for about an hour or so and I took over just before hitting the turnpike. I am originally from Southeast GA so I had never been on the turnpike so it was a first for me. After getting on the turnpike for about 40 minutes, we finally hit the much anticipated Hwy 429 Western Beltway and boy was it is nice! If you are able to use this road and bypass the I-4 area, I highly recommend it. Granted it was a Friday afternoon, but there wasn’t a soul in sight! We finally made it to the Western Way exit and headed to the Dolphin.


The Dolphin
We were very impressed with the Dolphin when we arrived. They unloaded our bags for us and had them delivered to our room. There were a lot of "conventioners" arriving when we were but that didn't both us. We really liked the Dolphin because of its location to both the parks and the Boardwalk for shopping/dinner. When we arrived at the Dolphin it was around 12:30pm and we were hoping to be able to check-in. Luckily our room was ready and the view we had was unbelievable. (see below)

To see all of my Disney photos from our trip, please visit www.pbase.com/podroma7/disney

Nap Time
By the time we got settled in our room (room number to come later), it was 1:00pm and that meant nap time. So we laid down to rest because we knew we had a hard 5 days ahead of us of walking and standing in line. I, of course, could not sleep so I decided to sit on the balcony and watch people and the boats coming in from MGM and the Boardwalk. You can’t tell in the picture above but from out room you could see Spaceship Earth & Illuminations at Epcot, the top of the Chinese Theatre and some fireworks and lights from Fantasmic at MGM, and way off in the distance between the Swan and MGM, we could see Wishes at the MK. All in all, our room was incredible! It’s too bad it was a little colder than expected, or we would have taken advantage of the Dolphin/Swan’s huge pools.

The RFC
So that night, we had a 6:00pm ADR at the Rain Forest Café at Downtown Disney so at about 4:00pm, we hopped on the DD bus. When we arrived at DD, we walked around and went into many shops. We already decided that we were only going to limit ourselves to a magnet and maybe a t-shirt or two for the whole trip but spend most of our money on food! We ended up not buying anything that night and wanted to wait until we saw more of the items at the parks. Since I had not been to WDW in a while, we decided to walk over to the Marketplace and Pleasure Island to see what was going on there. It looked like they were getting ready for the Festival of the Masters. So we made it over to RFCafe and waited about 15 minutes. We were seated in the Gorilla room just in front of the group of gorillas next to the big waterfall. I had the steak and shrimp combo and LA had the pot roast, both of which were pretty good. After finishing our meal we took the bus back to the Dolphin and Fantasia Gardnens. For those wondering, there was only one night that we shared buses with the Beach Club and Yacht Club. Most of the time our buses were shared with the Swan and Boardwalk so we were pleased with that.

The Massacre
So got back to our room and got ready for a night of mini-golf at Fantasia Gardens. It was nice staying at the Dolphin because we could walk across the street to play and be back to our room early. When I was younger, I had actually played at the Fantasia Fairways course and remember seeing the Dolphin and Swan back then. We decided to play the easier course of the two and we won't get into too much detail about the golf game. (I won by 12 strokes)

So after a good meal and some mini golf, we made it an early night so we had plenty of rest for our first day in the parks at the Magic Kingdom!

More to come on our first full day soon.....

 

[OhMari]

Welcome to WDW Trip Boards.

Looking forward to reading your Trip Report. We don't get to many people that stay at the Dolphin.

 

[KathyRN137]

Will love to hear how you managed to cope with all of us Jersey folk!!

(Naturally, we were there the same week!)


Kathy

 

[podroma7]

Friday, Nov 9, 2008

Magic Kingdom
So when we knew we were going to WDW, we immediately bought a guide book. After reading many reviews on the DIS, we chose the Unofficial Guide. So with the UG, we found it’s great website and crowd calendar. So upon seeing the crowd calendar for the days we would be there, we immediately starting to figure out which parks we would visit on which days.

So it just happened that we would stick the UG’s advice (avoid EMH if possible and stay away from the MK on Saturday) and we decided that the MK would
be our first park of the trip. We also knew that the MK has the most attractions that we were interested in seeing so it was obvious to us that we would spend the first and last days there.

MK Opening
Following the UG’s advice we were at the parks everyday about 30 minutes before parking opening. We left the Dolphin around 8:15am and luckily the MK bus was there in minutes. We bought our tickets at a Disney Store near our house and me being the paranoid person that I am, I got our tickets checked at the ticket window just to make sure they were valid. Everything was fine so we lined up at the gates and waited to be let into the park. We saw the train come in with all the characters and the singing and dancing and were finally let in around 8:45am (9:00am opening time).

The Button
So when they started to let people into Main St. our first stop was the City Hall to get LA’s 1st time visitor button. I read on the DIS that it was a good way to get a person excited about their first trip so we stopped and got one.

Fantasyland
Even though it was her visit, I told LA that we must not stop and look at all the stuff going on in Main Street at park opening and that we would have time to do that later. So we go to the castle and there was still a rope up on all of the bridges to the lands so we waited 2 minutes and were off to ride Dumbo first.


To see more of our Disney photos, please visit: http://www.pbase.com/podroma7/disney

Our Strategy
After reading the UG, it’s touring plans sounded really great. But I had been to MK before and I knew the layout of the lands and I knew LA really wanted to do a lot of the Fantastyland attactions, so that was our plan for the day. Start in Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, up to Liberty Square, Frontierland, and end in Adventureland saving Toowntown for the second day as well as any repeats of rides.

Fantasyland
We started at Dumbo because it was one of the top 3 rides that LA wanted to ride so we rode it. I will say, that for someone that gets motion sickness, going up and down like that kind of made me sick. But as one of the only families in line without a child, it as fun. It’s one of those rides you have to ride at least once just to say you have been on it. LA's dream for as long as she could remember was to ride Cinderella's Carousel so that is where we went next. It was everything she imagined and she loved every minute of it. So after that we went to the Tea Cups, Winnie the Pooh, Mickey's PhilharMagic, It's A Small World, Peter Pan, and Snow White and got Fantasyland over with. We ate lunch at Pinocchio's and it was just ok. We got a lot done before lunch in just 3 hours so we were very pleased with that.

Tomorrowland
So off we went to Tomorrowland and I rode Space Mtn while LA waited. I almost got her to ride it, she actually made it to the lines, but then she decided not to so I rode it by myself. It had been a while since I rode it but it was a lot more "jerky" than I remember. After Space Mtn we rode Buzz Light Year which we both enjoyed and then it was off to Liberty Square.

Jersey Smwersey
The reason my thread is titled this was because we did not experience any long lines the whole entire time were were at WDW. The longest line we had was at Peter Pan (posted 20 minutes) and it actually took us about 15 minutes to get on the ride. Maybe we just got lucky but we didn't see why Jersey Week was so feared. Now we did notice a lot of people from New Jersey because of their t-shirts or accents but that didn't bother us one bit.

More on the rest of the MK to come later.....

 

[kors]

Great TR...can't wait for more!

 

[Disneychix]

OMG! That pciture of your DW on the carosel is amazing!
The Dolphin is one of my very favorite places. I got married at the Swan/Dolphin and I just love love seeing all the beautiful pics. The location and view from those hotels is the best. I'm jealous reading about your lovely vacation.

 

[podroma7]

OMG! That pciture of your DW on the carosel is amazing!
The Dolphin is one of my very favorite places. I got married at the Swan/Dolphin and I just love love seeing all the beautiful pics. The location and view from those hotels is the best. I'm jealous reading about your lovely vacation.

Thanks! I'm an amateur photographer in my spare time and that picture is one of my best ever!

We really liked the Dolphin as well.

 

[2002Disneybride]

That picture is awesome of the resort--of course I have to ask, what type of camera etc...I am no ameteur I am pretty clueless when it comes to cameras but I am trying to learn!

 

[thptrek]

I like your carousel picture too. Hard to tell from the posting picture but it may be a bit overexposed. You may want to work it over in Photoshop or such to tone down the overexposed background.

 

[KathyRN137]

Jersey Smwersey
Maybe we just got lucky but we didn't see what Jersey Week was so feared. Now we did notice a lot of people from New Jersey because of their t-shirts or accents but that didn't bother us one bit.

Jersey Week Fear..... Hey, Fuhgettabouttit.



Kathy

 

[byoung]

More.

 

[podroma7]

That picture is awesome of the resort--of course I have to ask, what type of camera etc...I am no ameteur I am pretty clueless when it comes to cameras but I am trying to learn!

Thanks, about a year ago, I bought a Canon A630 (8.0 Mega Pixel) and I absolutely love it. It was a huge upgrade over my last camera (Sony Cybershot) but it has a lot of bells and whistles that take a little getting used to.

Thanks again for the compliments.

 

[4 DZNY NUTZ]

Friday, Nov 9, 2008



Jersey Smwersey
The reason my thread is titled this was because we did not experience any long lines the whole entire time were were at WDW. The longest line we had was at Peter Pan (posted 20 minutes) and it actually took us about 15 minutes to get on the ride. Maybe we just got lucky but we didn't see why Jersey Week was so feared. Now we did notice a lot of people from New Jersey because of their t-shirts or accents but that didn't bother us one bit.

More on the rest of the MK to come later.....

What accent, we dont have the accent, you guys have the accent!!

 

[podroma7]

What accent, we dont have the accent, you guys have the accent!!

You are exactly right! Us southerners do have quite the accents. For what's it worth, the week before I was in Atlantic City for business so I recognized all of the Cape May and Rutger's shirts that all you New Jersians (???) were wearing. If I hadn't been to NJ or knew it was "Jersey Week" I would have never known.

 

[podroma7]

Friday, Nov 9, 2007 cont.

Liberty Square
So from Tomorrowland, we made our way over to Liberty Square. The first thing we did was go to the Haunted Mansion. When we first knew we were going to WDW, I had told LA how much I loved the HM when I was a kid. So from then on, she didn’t really know what to think about HM, was it really scary or was it Disney cheesy but a classic ride? From the outside the HM can be a little scary, especially if you don’t know what the ride is all about. But once she saw the fake (and funny) tombstones on her way in, LA knew it wasn’t anything to fear and she liked it very much. The ride did stop for what seemed like 5-6 minutes but we were ok with it. From my addiction to the DIS, I read that the HM was recently renovated but I wasn’t able to tell since it had been so long since I was last there.

With there not being much to do in Liberty Square (LA had no interest in the Hall of Presidents) and the Riverboat being closed for the day, we made our way over to Frontierland. Before we went though, I snapped this picture from the bridge to Liberty Square from the Hub.

To see more of my Disney photos from our trip, please visit http://www.pbase.com/podroma7/disney

Convincing
Let’s talk about something for a second. LA is not a roller coaster person. Yes, I know that WDW roller coasters (with the exception of a couple) are not huge and really fast compared to others such at Six Flags and other theme parks. So when we first started looking the attractions at MK that we would want to ride, let me just say, I was a little surprised when LA said she wanted to ride Big Thunder Mtn Railroad. I certainly didn’t object because from as long as I can remember, BTM is my favorite ride at WDW (until this trip) So strolling through Frontierland, we decided to get a FastPass for BTM and grab a snack while we waited for our time.

The Ride
So when it came time for our FP, we happily got on BTM and LA loved it. The dips were a little much for her, she admitted but overall she really liked it. So we got more FP for it and decided to come back and ride it again later that night.

Splash
For you Splash Mtn junkies out there, I tried to get LA to ride it after our BTM ride but that drop you see while walking in front of the ride just scared her to death so we skipped it that day. If there was any way I could have not let her see that big drop, we would have rode it right then and there.

Travel Channel
After we rode Big Thunder Mtn, we naturally headed over to Adventureland and Pirates of the Caribbean. If any of you have seen the WDW specials on the Travel Channel like we had and had not yet visited WDW since they included Capt’n Jack Sparrow, then you were probably like us and tired of seeing them. So before we got on POC, we thought we knew the whole ride before we even rode it. But once again, we were proven wrong.

POC
I will say that the POC ride itself (and outside the building) has to be one of my favorite places in WDW because of the decorations and props they use to make it seem authentic. So we rode POC and it will always been one of my favorites at WDW. And if you know me, once I get a song in my head, I can’t get it out until I get a new one. (Yo, Ho, Ho…)

Surprised
At this time, it was roughly in the neighborhood of 2:00pm or so. We were very shocked to find that we had almost done every attraction/ride that we set out to do by this time. Sure there was a lot of others that we skipped but so far we had done everything we wanted and if we were absolutely forced to leave right then and there, we would be happy. We knew we were coming back to the MK for our last day at WDW so anything we didn't go today, we could do then.

Decision Time
So from reading the UG and DIS boards, I had the idea of going back to the hotel to rest for a couple of hours and then come back to finish touring the MK. Well that theory for us was thrown right out the door because it was our first day at WDW and there was no way we were leaving. So at that point, it was 2:00pm so we headed to Jungle Cruise to get FP (the wait was about 40 min) and to pass our time we decided to find a ride we could sit down in.

For the birds
The ride we decided on was the Tiki Room. Yes, I know it is “Under New Management” but we felt it needs a whole new make over. We know that we don’t have kids and that some people might enjoy it but we thought it was a waste of time and that’s exactly what we used it for. We even left the show early. So by that point it was time for our JC FP time so we got on for a cruise.

Jungle Cruise
We walked across to the JC entrance and were about 5 minutes early for our FP but as soon as they let us on and we probably waited 2 minutes. We had a nice girl as our “guide” and she had a very dry sense of humor so I liked her a lot. Was it me or did they used to shoot a fake gun during this ride? I saw the “gun” next to the steering wheel but she never fired it. There must have been a lot of boats in the water that day because we were backed up by other boats almost the entire ride so that kind of messed our guide’s commentary up but what are ya gonna do? Right?

Next stop, figure out what we wanted for dinner......

More of our first day of the MK to come later….

 

[NickP33]

[QUOTE
We stopped in Griffin, Ga
QUOTE]

It's nice to see my home town getting some props on the DIS. My DW, DS and myself are going to stay at the Swan in 2 weeks!

I'm enjoying the report!

 

[podroma7]

[QUOTE
We stopped in Griffin, Ga
QUOTE]

It's nice to see my home town getting some props on the DIS. My DW, DS and myself are going to stay at the Swan in 2 weeks!

I'm enjoying the report!

Yeah, I am from St. Simons Island originally so we typically stop in Griffin either on the way down there or on the way back.

 

[lynn71092]

Just curious, can I ask how old you guys are? If you posted pictures of yourselves I can't see them here at work, they block them out. I'll have to wait until I get home to see them. But I'm subscribing, I like your TR so far!

 

[podroma7]

Just curious, can I ask how old you guys are? If you posted pictures of yourselves I can't see them here at work, they block them out. I'll have to wait until I get home to see them. But I'm subscribing, I like your TR so far!

We are in our 30's. I know if I released my wife's real age, she would kill me!

 

[podroma7]

Friday Nov. 9, 2007 cont.

Decision Time (part 2)
Ok, remember in my last post how I swore that we weren't going to leave the MK on our first day of LA's first visit???? Sure we were all talk but when it came down to it, we really didn't want to ruin our next couple of days at WDW so we reluctantly decided to go back to the Dolphin and rest for a couple of hours. And after all, the MK was open until 11pm that night so we decided an hour or two of rest would help us stay until at least after wishes.

To see more of my disney photos, please visit: http://www.pbase.com/podroma7/disney

Picabo
So we headed back to the Dolphin via bus and decided to take a short nap. Of course, I couldn't sleep and LA had no trouble sleeping. I was just too excited that we were at WDW. So after a hour or two nap, we went down to Picabo in the Dolphin hotel and ate an early dinner. By this time it was about 4:30pm and we wanted to get back to the park no later than 6pm so we had plenty of time. Picabo is one of those 24 hour food court places but they have a hot vegetable line and they can make things to order for you. I choose a sandwich and LA had the Lasagna. Both were pretty good. Before and during dinner, LA wasn't feeling very good but by the time dinner was over she was feeling fine so we headed back to the MK.

Buses
I really have to commend Disney with their transportation. I don't know if it was because we just got lucky or they just run like this all the time but we didn't have one problem with the buses. On our way back to the MK, we only had to wait on the MK bus at the Dolphin for about 2 or 3 minutes. We never waited over 10 minutes for a bus and this was our first time staying at a hotel that had Disney Transportation and we loved it.

Back at last
So when we got back to the MK after a couple hour break we decided to take our time on Main Street. When we first got to the park that morning, I told LA that we couldn't worry about strolling through Main Street and that we could do it later. We had to get to the slow rides (Carousel, Tea Cups, & Dumbo) or if not, we would be waiting in line for days. So we took our time through Main Street, bought a candied apple, looked at some souvenirs (sp) and took our time.

To see more of my disney photos, please visit: http://www.pbase.com/podroma7/disney

Our Strategy
We decided that we wouldn't try to see Wishes and Spectro in the same night. We knew we were going to spend two nights at MK so we decided that one night we would see Wishes and the other night we would see Spectro. So during our first night there, we decided to wait for Wishes and hit some of the rides during Spectro.

What a combination: Nacho Cheese and Hot Chocolate
So after we strolled up Main Street and spent some cash, we headed back over to Tomorrowland. We rode Buzz again and drove a little on the Tomorrowland speedway. We grabbed some hot chocolate and split a nacho cheese pretzel and after consuming that rather quickly, hopped on the TTA. I know, two things that don't really go together but it was good and we were hungry. We wanted to ride AstroOrbiter but the line was too long and we really want to get our spot for Wishes.

Little metal box
Again, being the researcher that I am, I hit up the UG and the DIS on where the best place to see Wishes was and after many hours of searching, I found the most common place (but not as crowded) was the bridge from the hub to Tomorrowland. (and were these people were right) So we set up stake on the bridge to tomorrowland on the side of the bridge closest to Stitch and the castle. I positioned myself as close to the fake rocks (closest to Tomorrowland) and right next to a trash can so no one could get to my right and I still had a perfect view of the castle. Right in front of me, attached to the railing, hanging above the water was a small metal box that I think held the ropes they use to hold people back in the mornings during opening. Whatever it was, it was a perfect place for me to place my camera and small tri-pod without anyone getting in my way or knocking it over.

Here are some of the pictures that I took that night of Wishes:

To see more of my disney photos, please visit: http://www.pbase.com/podroma7/disney

How much does that person make?
Do any of you think the same way that LA and I did while at WDW? "I wonder how much that person makes compared to others working at WDW?" Well, if you do, you probably say that a lot while on vacation there. Like for example, we wondered if the people that are characters, make more money than the people selling ice cream or working in a retail store. We definitely thought that when it came to the person that played Tinkerbell at the begining of Wishes. Does anyone know if that person makes more $$ because they have risk their life to follow a zip line from Tomorrowland to the top of the castle? No matter what they make, the DISers and UGers were right, Tinkerbell runs right above you as she makes her way to the castle but you have to keep an eye out for her.

A perfect ending to a perfect first day
So after taking what seemed to be about 50 or 60 photos (I have a fireworks setting on my camera) we decided to call it a day. So we made our way to the exit and bought another candied apple on the way out.

Down to a science
This happened a lot to us, does this happen to anyone else? What seemed like almost every time we left, our bus was sitting at it's stop and we couldn't believe it. So what we did was, I would run to catch the bus while LA would walk/jog so i could hold the bus so it wouldn't leave. It seemed like this happened to us almost every time we would leave a park and that was fine by us. We didn't have to wait on another bus to come and got out of the parks and back to the hotel much quicker. (Ok, I know this really isn't a science and has to do with luck more than anything)

Next on our Jersey Week trip report: Saturday, November 10, 2007 - Animal Kingdom