Welcome, Foolish Muggles! IoA/US/MK/SW *July 2013 Trip Report Link*


There was someone at the entrance to the pool checking room keys and handing out bracelets. I didn’t want to ask him if it was ok if we just crossed over to the beach, so we turned around and went back into the building.

pphhbbttt...I would totally asked! I'd left the fam there while I ran to get my pic!! You have to get the pic!!!!! :thumbsup2
 
What a yummy dinner! We ate at Kona Cafe two years ago and really liked it. We just booked a breakfast ADR there for October so DBF can try the famous Tonga Toast. :yay:
 
pphhbbttt...I would totally asked! I'd left the fam there while I ran to get my pic!! You have to get the pic!!!!! :thumbsup2

You know what, I didn't even think that I could have taken my Flat Dee picture on the beach until your post. I have pictures of the Poly Beach from last year.

Believe me, I have my share of contraband photos! Going back WAY before my issues with the camera police at Universal!

What a yummy dinner! We ate at Kona Cafe two years ago and really liked it. We just booked a breakfast ADR there for October so DBF can try the famous Tonga Toast. :yay:

I saw on your PTR that you booked a breakfast at Kona. This is absolutely my family's favorite breakfast in the World (and in the world) and I promised you some food porn from our trip last year:

MINE- Macadamia Pineapple Pancakes- YUMMY!


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Nate's breakfast- Tonga Toast.


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Mark got the Big Kahuna-

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I saw on your PTR that you booked a breakfast at Kona. This is absolutely my family's favorite breakfast in the World (and in the world) and I promised you some food porn from our trip last year:

MINE- Macadamia Pineapple Pancakes- YUMMY!


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Nate's breakfast- Tonga Toast.


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Mark got the Big Kahuna-

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I just showed Franklin your photos, we're both positively drooling over here! :lmao: Thanks for adding them. :worship:
 

Love the Kona dinner photos! As for the breakfast photos from your previous trip, I'm wondering whether Mark ate that entire breakfast before heading out into the July heat!!
 
Love the Kona dinner photos! As for the breakfast photos from your previous trip, I'm wondering whether Mark ate that entire breakfast before heading out into the July heat!!

As you know, the breakfast pictures were from last years trip. This was more of a brunch than breakfast, our reservation was at 11 am. We had arrived at MK for EMH at 8 am, and this was our "I promise the boys 3 Mountains and an Island by 11" morning.

There was a lot of sharing all around. Ben was still a Disney "child" and his breakfast on the meal plan was the very small Donald's Breakfast (One egg, quacked and scrambled and cinnamon toast). Not nearly enough for him.

Yes, we returned to the MK in the July heat with no issues. We had never planned a late breakfast like that before, but it worked out really well. We started the day with some CL food, then Kona and later that night we ate at the Cape May Cafe.
 
Your trip report is great! When I left for vacation you had just posted about your morning at MK...I'm caught up on that day now! It's amazing what you got done at MK.

I totally understand about being behind the camera taking the pictures. I actually have to ask for someone in my family to take a picture with me in it since I mostly take all the photos. So that's where your 'Flat Dee' pic came from!

Oh, we went on the Cat in the Hat ride on our last day at US/IOA. I told the family that I needed to go on and report back to you on the 'spinning' effect on that ride. Well the ride does spin at times throughout, but just one turn each time at points during the ride. The way I remembered it 6 years ago, there was a bunch of spinning at the end of the ride. That did not happen. I even asked the employee about it when I got off the ride and she said the spinning 'depends on how many people are on the ride' (i.e. maybe she means the weight of the vehicle??). I'm guessing she didn't know the history of the ride!

Kerry
 
Your trip report is great! When I left for vacation you had just posted about your morning at MK...I'm caught up on that day now! It's amazing what you got done at MK.

I totally understand about being behind the camera taking the pictures. I actually have to ask for someone in my family to take a picture with me in it since I mostly take all the photos. So that's where your 'Flat Dee' pic came from!

Oh, we went on the Cat in the Hat ride on our last day at US/IOA. I told the family that I needed to go on and report back to you on the 'spinning' effect on that ride. Well the ride does spin at times throughout, but just one turn each time at points during the ride. The way I remembered it 6 years ago, there was a bunch of spinning at the end of the ride. That did not happen. I even asked the employee about it when I got off the ride and she said the spinning 'depends on how many people are on the ride' (i.e. maybe she means the weight of the vehicle??). I'm guessing she didn't know the history of the ride!

Kerry

Welcome Back, Kerry- Hope you will be posting more about your trip. Feel free to do it here if you are not doing a full blown trip report or let us know if you post something over on the Universal TR boards.

Last year I had to ask my son to take a picture of me when we were at York Beach, Maine for the Flat Dee. I'm glad I could send one from Disney this year.

Thanks for trying out the Cat in the Hat ride and reporting back!
 
:welcome:

I'm so glad you are joining in!!!

I'm working on my post finishing up at MK, hopefully posting it later today.
 
Before heading to Kona, we had taken our bag from the locker, in case we needed anything like new shirts or our ponchos. When we entered back into MK, we decided we would turn in our locker key to get our deposit back and keep our stuff for the rest of the time so we could avoid doing that at the end of the night.

And here we encountered our slowest moving line of the day.

I think I was two families back. There was one person working at the desk. The person she was helping was having some big issue (I couldn’t figure out what it was, although I tried to listen in). A supervisor came by and they both tried to solve the problem. Still nothing. We didn’t move. A woman and her friend got in line behind us, observed that nothing was moving and I hear her say “We don’t really need one”

I saw an opportunity when she said this. I turned around and asked her if she was trying to rent a locker. She said yes. I told her that I was returning my key and I was just trying to get my deposit ($5) back. I offered to sell her the key for $5. She would be paying $2 less than the rental amount and she would not have to deal with paying the extra deposit. I would get my $5 deposit back and be on my way.

Once she was convinced that I wasn’t trying to scam her (and she heard “savings”) we made the exchange.


We have never made it much past 3 PM at the MK on previous trips, so we had no idea what to expect for crowds.

It was BUSY!


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Fortunately, we have FPs for Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise and Winnie the Pooh from before dinner.

The first thing that we did was use our FP for Winnie the Pooh. Many of you know (and some of you have seen), the queue line has been upgraded and there are lots of interactive things for little ones to do. I’m not entirely sure how it all works. I think the kids can play here while you are holding a place in line?


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There is a wall where you can paint with “honey”. As you touch the screen, the honey reacts. All I can think of is little kids trying to lick the wall, after everyone has had their hands all over it. ICK!!!


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The ride is fun, and SURPRISE! We get a smile from Nate.


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Our next destination is Frontierland. We have a FP for Big Thunder Mountain, but we decide to get another one to use later in the evening. One of our hopes is to ride BTM at night.

This time, we have Ben pull the FPs:


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We will be right back to BTM, but first we go to ride Splash:


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Now BTM:


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As we are leaving the ride, I looked back and saw this:


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This is one of my favorite (non-family) photos of the trip.

It is now 8:15 PM

As we proceed through Fantasyland to Tomorrowland, we glance up at the FP time for Peter Pan:


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MK is open until midnight tonight. That’s a little late for us!


By the time we make it to Space Mountain, all FPs are gone for the day.


We get into the FP line for Space Mountain. Unfortunately, the line is about 30 minutes. Must be all those obnoxious people who collected FP earlier in the day and are turning them in now!

Actually, we look ahead to where the ride is boarding and it looks like a Tour Group is riding- so either they have slowed things up, or maybe they have gone through with FP. This is really the first time during the day, or even on the trip, that they really had any impact on us.


Disney After Dark


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It was probably around 9 after we finished at Space Mountain. We had FP for the two rides we wanted to try in the dark- Big Thunder Mountain and Jungle Cruise.

We rode BTM first. Afterwards, the boys used the rest room in the gateway between Frontierland and Adventureland. Spectromagic was going on and I was able to see the float from Pete’s Dragon. We didn’t stick around for any other floats in the parade.


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Our final ride was Jungle Cruise. The CMs wouldn’t take our FP because there wasn’t really a line for this. A lot of people love this attraction at night and we were excited to try it out.

I have a couple of pictures, but to be honest, it was just “meh” for us. The skipper seemed to be going really fast, and either missed a lot of the puns, or told them after we had passed the scene.


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At that point we were ready to call it a night. We were meeting our driver at 10:15 at the Contemporary and we wanted to get to there before the fireworks started at 10, so we could watch a little of Wishes before we left.

We made our way out of the park


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The view from the CR bus stop was so-so, especially when a bus pulled up, but we could see the fireworks while sitting on benches.


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We had a spectacular day at Magic Kingdom!!!

Not a drop of rain during our day.

We saw the opening show. We had great meals at Columbia Harbor House and Kona Café and enjoyed Dole Whips and Smoothies. We rode Big Thunder Mtn (4), Space Mtn (3), Splash Mtn (2), TTA (2), Jungle Cruise (2), Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyear, Winnie the Pooh, Philharmagic, and the monorail (which IS a ride). And we ended our day with beautiful fireworks.


Next up: Day 4- Sea World then back to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure
 
That's an AWESOME picture of BTMRR!!!!

:worship:

~MM

Thank you so much!

I'd say that was a very successful day!!!

We really had a great day! It really helped to satisfy our craving for Disney this summer.

What an amazing day! You certainly got your money's worth on those tickets!!! :thumbsup2

Amanda

I try to be frugal- I don't mind spending money, I just hate to waste it! Although visiting MK for one day was not the most cost effective part of our trip, we definitely feel like we got a good value.
 
Love the photo of BTMRR!!! I can see why it is your fave non-family. I can't wait to see the Winnie Pooh line...I'm just a little nervous leaving th ekids to explore while waiting in line...Are you close by?
No exploring around at the HM que? I wondered about the interactive que there? Were people enjoying it?
 
Sounds like a great evening at MK! I love all of the photos- especially the one of BTMRR with the sun in the background.
 














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