We're back...First time at WDW since 1998 - 2/20 to 2/27

[labattblue]

WDW Trip Report Tue 2/20 to Tue 2/27

Myself, Wife & DD12

I have included portions of the trip outside WDW, but since this is a Disney board, I will keep those sections brief. If anyone wants more info on those parts of the trip, let me know and I will elaborate.


Tuesday 2/20

Arrived at MCO at 12PM and proceeded to car rental pickup at Alamo(airport location). No line and clerk was very pleasant until I declined each and every attempt at optional insurance. At that point the smile on her face went away and it became, sign here, here, here & here, go out to the ramp and pick any car in the mid-size SUV row. When we got out there, I was pleasantly surprised to find a Toyota Highlander in the row because the rep at the counter tried to convince me to upgrade because the mid-size SUV's were comparable in size to a compact car. I'm not sure if this SUV was in the wrong row, but not my problem. Got in and off we went.

Hotel reservations at the Hampton Inn - Convention Center on Universal Blvd. If I had it to do over again, I would have just got a room at one of the value resorts. Since we only planned on going to the parks for 3 days, I thought it would be better to be off-site. Instead, we spent two other days at Downtown Disney, which meant at least part of 5 days we were on WDW property. Check-in was tedious to say the least. We were supposed to get a "king study" room which consisted of a King Bed and a sleeper sofa. Upon arriving, the front desk clerk(who I didn't see smile once the entire stay) informed us that the guest who was in our room, decided to stay an extra night, so despite our reservation, we could not have the room for the first night. Instead we could have a room with 2 double beds. When I argued with her that I had a reservation for the "king study", she sarcastically chimed back, "well the current guest was willing to pay $300 for the extra night". Upon seeing the double bed room, we decided to take it for the whole week instead, as I did not want to mess around with changing rooms in mid trip. More on the hotel later.

We spent the afternoon checking out the area up and down international drive grabbing a quick bite to eat for lunch. Spent a couple of hours at an outlet mall just south of the Marriott World Center.

Just down the road from this outlet mall is the Orlando "Official Ticket Center" where I stopped to buy our passes. I wanted 6 day/no expire/no hop passes, but they did not have any available. He gave us a $12 break per ticket($284 instead of $296) on the same type of passes for 7 days and made a copy of the tickets for use in case they got lost. I know there are multiple options for ticket brokers, but with the discount given to us, the customer service seemed to be very good and I would recommend them to everyone.

Later in the evening we walked over to TGI Fridays for dinner. It was right behind our hotel and we could walk there through a connecting parking lot.

Wednesday 2/21

Got up and took advantage of the free breakfast at the Hampton Inn. Ate here every day for breakfast except when we went to 1900 Park Fare. Typical continental breakfast(bagels, toast, cereal, fresh fruit, danishes & muffins) along with a couple of hot items every day. Very clean dining area and food was always plentiful. Nothing fancy, but it served the purpose and the price was right.

We took off for the MK. It is about a 15-20 minute ride from the hotel to the MK parking lot toll plaza. Parked, took the monorail and got to the main entrance about 8:45(park opened at 9AM). Weather was great. Sunny and in the mid to high 70's. We did not have a formal touring plan for each park day, but I was well prepared for fast passes, which attractions are most popular & the location of every attraction in order to minimize the amount of park criss crossing we would be doing. To me, this was more than enough in terms of minimizing wait times without a formal touring plan. This is what we went on or saw during the course of the day and night from 9AM until park closing at 10PM(if we went on any attraction more than once, the number of times is in parentheses)...

Jungle Cruise - Fast Pass
Pirates of the Caribbean(3)
Tiki Room
Swiss Family Robinson
Big Thunder Mountain(4) - Fast Pass 3 out of 4 times
Hall of Presidents
Country Bear Jamboree
Haunted Mansion(2)
It's a Small World(3)
Peter Pan - Rode first thing in the morning
Snow White - Rode first thing in the morning
Cinderella's Carousel
Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - Rode first thing in the morning
PhilharMagic
TTA
Buzz Lightyear Spin - Fast Pass
SpectroMagic - Watched from the left of the Hall of Presidents if you are facing the attraction
Wishes - Watched from in front of the castle

The longest wait we had were maybe 20 minutes for PotC. Most everything else with or without Fast Pass was 10 minutes or less. The park was extremely crowded and even the food cart vendors had lines 15-20 people long. That being said, I was quite pleased with what we got to see considering the crowd level. The rides we went on multiple times were favorites of DD12. My first trip to WDW as a child was in the early 70's, so I am quite nostalgic about the original park rides like TTA, PotC, Hall of Presidents, CoP etc... One thing I need to single out...The Captain Jack Sparrow audio-animatronics in PoTC were AMAZING and give you quite the perspective as to how much more the imagineers can do today vs. ones designed 25 years ago. Even though DD is 12, she loves all the "low key" attractions especially Small World. There is not a single attraction that we went on that we did not enjoy.

As far as eating goes, we had a big breakfast at our hotel, grabbed a couple of soft pretzels around lunchtime and had dinner around 6PM at Peco Bills. Wife and I split a chicken wrap w/fries and DD had the chicken strips w/fries. The fries were nice and hot and by that time of the day, the restaurant was not super crowded and was a nice break for 45 minutes or so. I was pleasantly surprised that a bottle of pop or water was only $2 from the carts. One side note to eating...The birds in Frontierland were BRUTAL and the number of idiots feeding them were equally BRUTAL. The birds were in other parts of the park, but nothing like Frontierland.

Only disappointing part of the day was being routed out of the MK behind Main St. due to an unscheduled 2nd showing of SpectroMagic. At first, I didn't know where they were directing us and by the time I realized it, I didn't feel like turning around. It just took away from some of the magic. Think of taking a walk behind a strip mall and that is what it was like. A lot of white walls and dumpsters. Took the monorail back to the TTC without too much of a wait, drove back to the hotel and hit the bed exhausted after 13+ hours at the park.

Overall a FANTASTIC day back at WDW for the first time since DD was 4-1/2.




Days 3, 4 & 5(2 R&R days and one at the Kennedy Space Center) coming over the weekend.

 

[DebIreland]

Great job so far!! Wow, sorry to hear about the bad service at check-in. Her attitude really stinks. Very unprofessional to tell you about the other guest paying 300 dollars to stay in the room.

You got tons of stuff done at MK!!! Sounds like an excellent day!

I'm looking forward to hearing about your R&R days and I definitely want all the details on KSC and any other offsite activities. We went to KSC last October and I put it in my trip report too. I'd be very interested to hear your take on it.

Keep up the good work!

 

[labattblue]

Great job so far!! Wow, sorry to hear about the bad service at check-in. Her attitude really stinks. Very unprofessional to tell you about the other guest paying 300 dollars to stay in the room.

You got tons of stuff done at MK!!! Sounds like an excellent day!

I'm looking forward to hearing about your R&R days and I definitely want all the details on KSC and any other offsite activities. We went to KSC last October and I put it in my trip report too. I'd be very interested to hear your take on it.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the comments. I look forward to writing the rest of the report. KSC is overlooked by some because of the 45 minute ride from Orlando, but IMO is well worth it, if you have a free day.

 

[labattblue]

Thursday 2/22
After breakfast at the hotel, we decided to spend a couple of hours shopping before it warms up and we hangout by the pool. We started out at Pointe Orlando because it was close to our hotel. Most of it is still being built and there are not a heck of a lot of stores yet. We then went over to the Orlando Premium Outlet Mall on Vineland Rd.(across from Dixie Stampede). We spent a couple of hours walking around. Wife and DD shopped, I mostly people watched. By 1PM, I was ready for some R&R at the hotel pool.

I have to say that the temperature of the hotel pool was maybe the warmest I've ever been in. It had to be close to or above 90. Because we were by the convention center and the hotel seems to cater to the conventioneers, we had the pool basically to ourselves for 4 hours. Even though the air temps were in the mid 70's, the wind made it a little cool when first getting out of the pool. Nice relaxing afternoon in which DD did not get out of the pool for the entire 4 hours and Mom & Dad get to kick back and relax.

After heading back to the room to take a quick shower and change, we took off for DTD for dinner at Planet Hollywood. Got there shortly before 6PM and only had a wait of about 20 minutes. I'll sum up the dinner in a couple of sentences. Great fun for DD, tables extremely close together and LOUD. Food was good. We had some potato skins to start, split the fajitas and DD had the kids pizza. One funny moment occurred for me in the bathroom. They have the attendants in there to give you soap and hand you towels. After I was done, I reached in my pocket(besides several $20's in my wallet) and all I had was a couple of couple drops and a few nickels. I laughed to myself, put the loose change in my pocket and walked out. Afterwards we spend a couple of hours tooling around DTD Marketplace. Very crowded, but enjoyed the World of Disney store, the $10 and under store and others. Got back to the hotel before 11PM as we were heading to KSC the next day.


Friday 2/23
Once again had breakfast at the hotel. Tried to get wife and DD to move a little faster, but didn't get out of the hotel until about 8:15. Drive to KSC is pretty easy except for the 3 annoying toll plazas on the Bee Line Expressway. Took 45-50 minutes to get there from our hotel. We had pre-purchased tickets at the Orlando Official Ticket Center(same time we got our MYW tickets). They were 36.50 each including tax. KSC was open from 9AM to 6PM. What we did not plan for was the security lines at KSC. First you stand in line to get through a metal detector and then you proceed to a table where they do a pretty extensive bag check including having to turn on all your cameras. Probably took 30 minutes total as there were a lot of people in line.

We decided to go on the bus tour first which was probably a mistake as we spent another 30 minutes in line waiting to get on a bus along with everyone else who decided to do this first. The bus tour makes 3 stops.

The 1st is at an observation platform close to the shuttle launch pads. There is also a short movie here and a an automated presentation of the shuttle launch. There are also restrooms and counter service food here. At all three stops, you can stay as long or as short as you want(you don't have to get off the bus if you don't want to). When ready to leave for the next stop, you get in line to board the next bus.

The 2nd stop is AWESOME and revolves around the Apollo launches and the Saturn V rockets used in these missions. When you get off the bus, you head into a room where an Apollo launch is replicated. They have all original recordings of a launch and the computer stations in front of you. This is not a simulator or anything like it(for those who are thrill seekers), but very cool none the less. From there you go into a theater where they replicate the lunar landing. About 10 minutes long. Upon exiting, you spill out into the best part of the stop, a huge room with a full length Saturn V rocket. Also had numerous displays with the capsule and other related Apollo mission items.

The 3rd stop revolves around the International Space Station. You get to see modules that are currently under construction that will be taken into space to become part of the space station in the coming months. They then have an interactive area where you can walk through several replicas of different parts of the space station. Leaving this part of the tour, we waited almost 30 minutes for a bus. I'm not sure what happened, but for some reason they had 200+ people in line and no buses for at least 15-20 minutes.

The amount of time the bus tour takes depends on how much time you spend at each stop. I'm going to guess that it took us 4+ hours. I'd recommend either getting their prior to opening and get right in line for the first tour or maybe wait until later in the day to go on it.

Back at the KSC visitor center, we had a quick bite to eat at the main cafeteria. Typical soup, salad, sandwich, burger fare. It was quiet, because by now the lunch crowd was gone, but the place was trashed.

They have so much to see and do, there was no way we were going to do it all one day. They do allow you back for a free 2nd day within a 7 day period, but we didn't have the time to go back. After eating, we walked through a full size shuttle replica they have. From there we went into an exhibit where a KSC employee gives you a briefing on NASA launches in the near future. We took a walk by a very nice astronaut memorial, that I believe would be much more impressive at night as the astronauts names were all lit up from behind.

They have two 3D IMAX movies side by side in one building. We only had time to go on one and chose the one that revolved around walking on the moon. The only bad thing was that we were almost the last ones to get in and got stuck in the 2nd row at the one end. Very well done and 3D effects were still good despite the location of our seats. Outside, they have a huge "rocket garden" from the last few decades with around 10 rockets on display. Very cool to walk around and read about each rocket. The last thing we did was go in an attraction geared towards kids. It revolved around going to Mars. It was some 3D & some interactive hosts. The kids loved it. They used volunteers from the audience several times. By now, it was close to 6 and even though there was much more to see, we had to call it a day.

On the way back about 5 miles away, they also have an Astronaut Hall of Fame which is include in the price of the KSC admission. It is open until 7PM, but by the time we hit the bathrooms at KSC, walked to our car and starting driving it was already after 6:30, so we skipped it.

One other note...they are getting ready to open a huge Space Shuttle simulator attraction. I believe they said it was opening in May or so. All in all, a good value for the money especially if you are interested enough to go back a second day. Younger children may get bored, but for those children with an interest in the space program and for most adults, it is a must see.

On the way back, the last toll plaza on the Beeline before I-4 was gridlock. They only had two lanes open with attendants. The rest were exact changes or EZ Pass lanes. Took us about 25 minutes to get through this. Went back to the hotel, freshened up and had a nice dinner at the Olive Garden near hotel on International Drive.

Saturday 2/24
Today is the character breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. Drove over to the GF(you go through the MK toll plaza) and tell them you are going to the hotel. We parked in the guest parking and checked in at the restaurant. We waited about 10 minutes and were seated near the back of the restaurant. If you have ever been there, there is a small back room with about 8 or 10 tables. Our table was in the Main room adjacent to this back room. Since none of the characters were close by, we went up and got our food. Wife and DD both had omelets as there was no line at the omelet station. I had the southwestern scrambled eggs, home fries with corn beef, sausage and fruit. Went back a second time for more eggs and some bacon. We also had some danishes and muffins afterwards. All food was proper temp and of good quality. Waitress service for beverages was very good. Characters at the breakfast were Mary Poppins in the restaurant lobby, Alice, Mad Hatter, Pooh & Tigger. If you take a few second to figure out how they rotate, you won't have to miss the characters while being at the buffet line. Alice came around first(and made it around 2 more times), Pooh second(made it around a second time), Tigger third. Got good pictures with all of them. We had to wait a little while for the Mad Hatter as he interacts at each table more than the other characters. No one asked us to get up and go. It seemed like we could have stayed as long as we wanted. Just as the Mad Hatter was about to hit our table, one of the CM's asked him to take a couple of quick pictures with parties who were in a hurry to leave. When he got back to our table, he sat down next to DD and apologized for the delay. He then proceeded to go through all the different tea bag types on the table complaining that he didn't like many of them. He was very good and worth the wait. We snapped one picture with Mary Poppins and DD on the way out. We had a WONDERFUL time and well worth the $65-70 including tax and tip.

One side note...I was surprised at a number of people who came in, ate and left within 20-25 minutes. No interest in the characters. Just eat and go. Some of the parties had young kids too. Very puzzling.

Stopped at DTD to walk off breakfast. Not nearly as crowded as it was on Thursday evening. After an hour or so, it was back to the pool to get one more swimming session in prior to marathon park days on Sunday and Monday.

Once again the pool was very quiet and exceptionally warm. Wife spend a few hours reading a book in the sun, while DD and I swam away for 4 hours or so. After showering, we went to Chili's on International Drive for dinner. Good meal, like any Chili's in your hometown. Afterwards we played putt-putt near the hotel. I think the place was called Hawaiian Rumble. $10 a person. A lot of fun, but to many opportunities for your ball to go off course into the grass, the next hole, etc... (not very well designed to keep things moving). Afterwards, we had ice cream, stocked up at Walgreens on snacks and bottled water to take to the parks and then turned in getting ready for back to back park days at EC and MK.

 

[labattblue]

Sunday 2/25
Had breakfast at the hotel and took off for Epcot. Parked fairly close and walked to the main entrance. Got there about 8:45(park opened at 9AM). Weather was great. Sunny and in the low 80's for the high. Crowds were not too bad. This is what we went on or saw during the course of the day and night from 9AM until park closing at 9PM(if we went on any attraction more than once, the number of times is in parentheses)

Soarin'(3) Fast Pass twice, standby at park opening...15 minute wait.
Turtle Talk w/Crush
Nemo(3)
Test Track(2)Once w/Fast Pass. Once standby w/20 minute wait.
Honey I Shrunk the Audience
Journey into Imagination
Universe of Energy
Living with the Land
Spaceship Earth
Maelstrom - Fast Pass
American Adventure
Illuminations

Had a great time at Epcot. Our first time riding Soarin'. Very impressive. Convinced DD to try Test Track. She was very nervous, but came off asking to ride again(which we did when the standby time dropped under 30 minutes) We snacked during the day and ate at the Electric Umbrella around 5PM or so. Standard burger and chicken strip fare, but it was not real crowded and we found an empty table in the one corner. Nemo was very cute and had little or no wait each time we went on. SSE has a serious ride transport problem(which detracts form the great scenes). It is bumpy beyond belief and feels like it needs an overhaul. We did not get much time to spend in WS. Just enough to get a Fast Pass for Maelstrom, grab a soft pretzel w/cheese and see the American Adventure which was GREAT. By now it was 8:30PM. We walked back to the WS gateway, found a spot to sit on the pavement and watched Illuminations. Even though I wished we had more time to spend in WS, it was a fun time overall.

Monday 2/26
Had breakfast at the hotel and took off for the MK. Parked, took the ferry(monorail appeared to be quicker) and got to the main entrance about 9:15(park opened at 9AM). Weather was great. Sunny and in the low 80's for the high. This is what we went on or saw during the course of the day and night from 9AM until park closing at 7PM(if we went on any attraction more than once, the number of times is in parentheses)

Jungle Cruise - Fast Pass
Pirates of the Caribbean(2)
Big Thunder Mountain(4) - Fast Pass 2 out of 4 times. Other two times were when we first got there and there was no wait
Haunted Mansion
It's a Small World(2)
Peter Pan - Fast Pass
Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - Fast Pass
Carousel of Progress
TTA(2)
Buzz Lightyear Spin - Fast Pass
Minnies House
Mickey's House w/Judges tent(got pictures with Mickey)
ToonTown Hall of Fame(Got pictures w/Daisy&Donald, Chicken Little & Chip&Dale)
WDW Railroad AM(ToonTown to Frontierland)
WDW Railroad PM(Frontierland to Toontown)
3PM Parade - Watched from location next to the Hall of Presidents
Wishes - Watched from in back of the castle near Adventures of Winnie the Pooh


Crowds were not nearly as bad as the previous Wednesday. We felt like we got a lot done in the 9+ hours or so. Ate dinner at Cosmic Rays, but was disappointed in the fact that the section of the restaurant that serves soup, salads & sandwiches was closed. There were not even menus on the boards, so I am not sure how long it has been like this. There is a quiet pathway between Toontown and Tomorrowland that is a nice shortcut and also a great photo op if you want some pictures of the WDW railroad engine in all its "steaming" glory. I had read elsewhere that Wishes from behind the castle is good, but without the crowds. I beg to differ. My head was on a swivel as some of the fireworks are shot off behind Snow White & Philharmagic while others are shot off beyond the park boundaries(behind Ariels grotto). It also gets quite smoky if you are downwind and wife & dd both felt like they got something in their eyes. It is not nearly as magical as watching them from at some point in front of the castle. I would not recommend this at all. Because the P&P party that night was at 7PM, there was quite the logjam going down Main St. and onto the Monorail or Ferry. Once we got outside the park, we sat down for about 30 minutes facing the WDW train station. By the time we left, there were not too many people left waiting, so we got a few nice pictures in front of the Mickey made up of flowers. Took the monorail back and decided to make one last stop at DTD. Had a quick ice cream, picked up a few last souvenirs & had a silhouette done of DD. Got back to the hotel around 10:30 and packed until 12:30AM.

Tuesday 2/27

Got up at 6AM, showered, went to gas up the rental car and met wife and DD down in the hotel lobby for breakfast. Upon looking at the bill for the hotel, the desk clerk who had promised to switch our rate from 124 to 109 because we switched rooms, didn't do it. Went back to the front desk and they made the adjustment. Had a quick breakfast, finished packing and took off for the airport at 7:30(our flight was at 9:40). Rental car drop-off for Alamo went smoothly and quickly. Made our way through ticketing, baggage and security without any trouble and waited at the gate....

dreaming of next time.


PS We waited to hit EC and MK on the last 2 days of the trip(hoping that most of the President's Week crowds would be gone), but we paid a price. Two straight 14 hour days on our feet with little breaks left us all exhausted when we got home.


I realize this isn't as creative as other trip reports, but I hope I provided some insights to our trip. If I can answer any questions regarding what I have written, just let me know. I'll ge glad to help.