What do you mean 'There is no Mr. Toad' ?- A September '14 TR * Updated 1/25 *

[larslovesyou]

Hello wonderful Dis'ers and welcome to my very first Trip Report!

But first..... introductions!

I'm Laura, a graphic artist, from Washington, D.C.


Favorite Disney Park: Animal Kingdom
Favorite “Land” : Adventure Land
Favorite Ride: Expedition Everest
Favorite Hotel: AKL
Favorite Disney Character(s): Chip & Dale
Favorite Disney Movie: Robin Hood

This is my DH, Matt.


Favorite Disney Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite “Land”: New Fantasy Land
Favorite Ride: Dinosaur
Favorite Hotel: He has only stayed at Coronado Springs (this trip), but he really liked Wilderness Lodge
Favorite Disney Character: Robin Hood
Favorite Disney Movie: Robin Hood

What's the occasion?
Do I really need a reason to go to disney? I don’t think so!
BUT, it was my year to choose where we go on vacation. ( we go somewhere every September) I decided since vacation was during my 28th Birthday, I wanted to go to DISNEY WORLD! We also decided to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary (even though it was technicallyin July) while we were there.

The Final Decision!
I was tossing around the idea of going to Disney back in May. I happened to look at Disney's website, to see if we could even afford to go. I looked one day, and it seemed too expensive. My dream of going back to Disney seemed over! I came back the next day to fantasize about my vacation that would never be - and thats where I saw it- FREE DINING!
I looked around at all of the Resorts that offered free dining and decided on Coronado Springs. I texted my DH, and told him I had booked vacation- and there was no going back now!

We booked a 6 night, 7 day stay, with 7 day park-hopper passes, and free dining for less than $2000! WOOHOO!

I hope you all will stay tuned for more....

 

[larslovesyou]

Day One
Arrival Day
Arrival Day • Magic Kingdom

Day Two
Day Two • Epcot
Day Two • Downtown Disney

Day Three
Day Three • Hollywood Studios

Day Four
Day Four • My Magic Kingdom Birthday
Day Four • No Birthday Wishes for You

Day Five
Day Five • Animal Kingdom Part One

 

[larslovesyou]

we woke up bright and early- 4:30 am to get ready to head to the Airport. Our flight from DC went off without a hitch and we were landing in Orlando 30 minutes early – at 9 am.

We opted for the Magical Express & Luggage Delivery. We were off the plane & on the Magical Express bus before 10 am! No waiting whatsoever. Our bus stopped at both Coronado Springs and the All-Star Resorts. Coronado was the first stop

We had done online check in about a month before our trip, and I had requested Cabanas 8B, second floor, standard view.

We got to the online check-in counter and there was only one couple in front of us, but there was also only one Cast member. We waited....and waited...and waited.... about 15-20 minutes of us standing around. A WDW Cast Member, who did not work for the resort, got in line behind us, and could tell our excitement was getting deflated. My DH was probably cursing under his breathe as well.
She asked how long we had waited and once we told her, she said “ this is unacceptable” and took us over to the concierge desk, and demanded that they check us in! The Cast Member at the concierge booth was extremely apologetic and sweet. She informed us that the room we had requested wasn’t ready (honestly I wasn’t expecting my exact request to be granted anyways). I also knew that official check in time was 3 pm. Since it was only 10 am, I figured we would have to wait. She asked if we wanted our requested room in Cabanas or if we would like a room that was all ready to go in Ranchos. The room in Ranchos was the farthest away from everything, so we opted to wait. And boy am I glad we did!

The Cast Member said it would be about 2 hours for our room to be ready. We would get a text when ready and we could just use our magic bands to open the room. My DH was starving so we headed over to Pepper Market so he could get some breakfast, right went we sat down to eat, we got a text “ Your room is ready”. Our 2 hour wait for our room was only 15 minutes!

The view from our room, parking lot views never bothered me!

We made our way to our room, magic bands worked perfectly.
I was really impressed by the room. I loved how clean and modern it looked. It wasn’t ::BAM:: DISNEY IN YOU FACE (which my DH appreciates) The only thing I thought was dated was the bathroom. The ugly old tiles and color scheme did not match the rest of the room.

Hidden (?) Mickeys!

My DH opted for a nap, while I decided to walk around the resort, while we waited for our luggage from the Magical Express to arrive. It was supposed to be delivered within 3 hours of our check in, however it took 4 ½ hours. They said there was some sort of delay at the airport that morning - not sure if thats true. (always try and blame someone else!)
Lucky we didn’t really need anything from the luggage yet...except sunscreen! I didn’t want to head to the parks without any, so we waiting for our luggage to arrive before heading out to our first park.

Did I mention how awfully hot it was?

Up next...Our First Night at the Magic Kingdom!

 

[heaven2dc]

The CSR rooms are so pretty and the resort grounds are beautiful! Such a long wait for your luggage - at least your husband got in a nap and you took some great pics!

 

[larslovesyou]

After we waited 4 ½ hours for our luggage to arrive, we were finally ready to head to the Magic Kingdom!!

We had Planned to be there from 4 pm to 9 pm (close). We walked to hotel bus stop and were anticipating having to wait a while for a bus - after hearing about how bad disney transportation is. Well...we walked to the bus stop, and not even a minute later a Magic Kingdom bus pulled right up!

We arrived at MK right after 3 p.m., a hour early!
Even better...they made an announcement right as we were walking into the park that they were extending the hours one extra hour, until 10 p.m.!

See the Crane?

...

I think here is a good place to mention that I am a planner. I had planned out all of the itineraries, for every day, months ago. I booked all my fast passes at the 60 mark, without any issues, & was able to get the exact times I wanted. I used Touring Plans as my planning tools. I love their online Plan Builder and their App. I used the Touring Plans App more than the official Disney App while I was in the parks. I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves to schedule out everything in advance!

...

Our first afternoon at MK was planned to do everything in Liberty Square, Frontier Land, Adventure Land & Space Mountain. We were leaving Fantasy Land and Tomorrow Land for our second MK Day.

Well...because out Touring Plan was SO efficient, we saw everything in Liberty Square, Frontier Land, Adventure Land AND Tomorrow Land (except Buzz Lightyear- which we had a FP+ the next MK day) PLUS the Festival of Fantasy Parade and the Electrical Parade (I had no intention of seeing either of theses)

Our FP+ for the day were:
Space Mountain @ 4:30
Splash Mountain @ 7
Big Thunder Railroad @ 8:30

The park seems crowded to me. But no one really seemed to be riding any of the rides... just a lot of people meandering about.
The longest wait time we had was for Haunted Mansion-15 minutes (posted time 25).

Things that I had never done before until this trip:
• Try a Dole Whip
• Ride the Liberty Square River Boat
• Ride BTMR at night
• Climb the Swiss Family Tree House

AdventureLand is my favorite Land in MK, plus how can you not love this little bird!

The Tiki Room! I cant go to Disney without seeing this, even if it drives my family (and now DH) crazy!

BTMR at night

What cruel tricks are these? Making me think its Fall, when its 100 degrees outside?

Please forgive the blurry cell phone pics.

Wishes!

Goodnight Main Street!

We left the park at 9:45 and didn’t have to wait for a bus. It was standing room only though. We went to bed pretty early since the next day it was our EE day at Epcot!

 

[larslovesyou]

Our second day was an Early Entry day at Epcot. Since Epcot has that Tiered FP+ I knew we would have to get to the park as early as possible to ride both Soarin' and Test Track.

FP+
Seas with Nemo 9:30 ( throw away )
Soarin' 10:30
Spaceship Earth 2:15

We left our hotel room bright and early and walked to the bus stop around 7:15 am, the bus arrived at 7:20
We arrived at Epcot around 7:30. We had to wait 30 minutes for the park to open. I would say they started to let people in at 7:55. We were only the 3rd group in line to get in.

It seemed that most people were headed towards Soarin'. There were only a few people headed to Test Track, which is where we were going.

Funny thing about Test Track: when we arrived it said the stand-by entrance was a 20 minute wait. We were within the first 20 people or so to arrive at the ride. Needless to say...20 minutes to ride was a gross exaggeration.

After we rode test track we jumped right over to Mission Space, – once again no one in line. We still had while before The Seas opened, so we ended up playing some of the games in the mission space exit.

Once 9 a.m. hit we walked over to The Seas, and checked out all of the tanks and exhibits. It was really cool because they were feeding all of the animals, so it was a great time to see everything! We used our unnecessary FP+ for Nemo and Friends and checked out Turtle Talk - which was HILARIOUS. I know it is for kids, but my DH and I loved it!

Up next was The Land. We rode Living with the Land and Soarin' ( with a FP+). Soarin' had a posted wait time of 55 minutes by 10:30 a.m.

At this point we were WAY ahead of schedule and decided to go ahead to eat a little early. Wit hit up Sunshine Seasons right at 11 a.m. – when they opened for Lunch. It was great! You can check out my Dining Report here!

Next up was Figment We skipped Captain EO ( seriously? why is this still here?)

Our goal was to make it half way around the world showcase, to America.

Well, that didn’t happen! IT...WAS...SO...HOT!!!!

We checked out Canada, and the UK. Our plan was to take a break and grab a beer at Rose & Crown ( Hello, Snakebite ) BUT, neither of us could fathom drinking alcohol at this point.

We then trekked on to France. Impressions of France has never seems better! My DH fell asleep so fast he started snoring.
After that great nap, we stopped for my first snack credit at WDW! Check out my Dining Report to see what it was!

My DH was looking pretty ill and I realized that he was getting a huge headache from the heat so we headed towards our last 2 rides - Universe of Energy (another great nap) and then finally our FP+ for Spaceship earth.

Our bus stop was one of the closest to the exit. A quick ride back to Coronado and then it was nap time followed by a great dip in the most beautiful pool of all time!

Coming up Next: Night Two at Downtown Disney

 

[larslovesyou]

I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures, for those of you interested in construction, but walls are just not something I think about taking photos of on vacation!

We left Epcot around 2:30ish, because it was TOO HOT! After napping, and swimming it was time to leave to go to Downtown Disney for dinner. We had a dinner reservation for 8:50 at Raglan Road.

I have read horror stories of how bad DD is right now and that it would take over an hour to get to it on the bus, because traffic is so bad. So we caught a bus from Coronado around 6 p.m.

Well....it took all of 10 minutes to get there. No problems at all, and no traffic. [ keep in mind though, this was the bus. Im sure driving to DD is a whole 'nother ball game]
The only bus stop is at Marketplace. So it is still a little hike to the other side of DD.

Since we got there so early we decided to check out all the shops. Marketplace had no signs of construction, until you got to the Lego Store, where the sidewalk is closed.

The Construction didn't really bother me. Sure there were walls everywhere, but i didn't find it hard to maneuver around DD. The walls were just blocking old buildings that I couldn't have cared less about anyways. The last time Pleasure Island had anything worth seeing, I wasn't allowed in without parental guidance!

The only restaurant that seemed hard to get to was Planet Hollywood, but let me be honest here....why is Planet Hollywood still there? Hasn't is seen its heyday?

We did get a nice peek of the infamous Parking Garage. This thing is MASSIVE.
I think I figured out why construction is taking so long though :

DH & I both really liked the D Street shop. It had a lot of really cool merch that we didn't see around the rest of WDW. If you collect Vinylmations, I suggest checking it out. They have the whole store decorated in Vinylmations, from floor to ceiling.

I also really liked the Co-op in Marketplace. The Orange Bird collection is amazing and I had to stop myself from buying everything in there!

After walking around for a while, we decided to grab some beers from the Raglan Road Kiosk, since our reservation was still 30 minutes out. DH and I grabbed a bench and watched all the families dragging around their screaming, tired children. Downtown Disney at night and sleepy children do not mix! Poor Kids!

We ate a great dinner at Raglan Road
(My Dining Reports can be found here)

After dinner we walked around a little more, and then it was time to head back to Coronado!

Coming up next: Hollywood Studios

 

[VBelle68]

Your pics of Epcot are great! I never seem to spend enough time in Canada! I'm going to fix that next month.

I agree about Touring plans. I love them! My only problem is I tend to over schedule myself. I need to build in more breaks!

We skipped DTD last trip because of the construction. Can't wait to see your experience.

 

[larslovesyou]

The CSR rooms are so pretty and the resort grounds are beautiful! Such a long wait for your luggage - at least your husband got in a nap and you took some great pics!

We loved CSR. I can't figure out why people hate it so much!

Your pics of Epcot are great! I never seem to spend enough time in Canada! I'm going to fix that next month.

I agree about Touring plans. I love them! My only problem is I tend to over schedule myself. I need to build in more breaks!

We skipped DTD last trip because of the construction. Can't wait to see your experience.

Thank you! I love going into all the nooks & crannies of the world showcase! Canada is Beautiful, I just wish there was more there! I set the Touring Plans page to "slow walking", to make sure we had enough time in between rides, even though we walk quickly!

 

[larslovesyou]

This was our longest day in any park. So for anyone who says HS is a half day park....please tell me how!

Trying on ear at Hollywood Studios! DH looks closer to 13 in age than 30!!!!

There was no EE at Hollywood Studios this morning, so we arrived right at park opening, 9 am. It seemed they had already opened the park for a while because a lot of people were already inside...i couldn’t figure out where they were going. Frozen stuff maybe?

While waiting in line at the park entrance we finally had some pixie dust sprinkled upon us! DH was asking about what times our FP+ were. After I told him what time our Toy Story FP+ was for, the lady in front of us turned around and said “ Oh, you'll want to ride Toy Story more than once!” and handed us 2 paper FP that didn’t expire until the end of September!
She explained to us that her husband was the Director of Guest Operations at HS, and that he had left his hat at home! So she came to drop it off to him! She was so sweet, and said that any time she goes to the park she always brings FP to hand out to people! How great is that? Even Cast Members families are spreading Pixie Dust!

Here were our FP+ for the day
TSMM: 10:00 a.m.
Star Tours: 3:20 p.m.
Tower of Terror: 7:00 p.m.

We arrived to a rainy park only to see a beautiful rainbow shooting out from ToT. I think everyone who got off the bus stopped to take a picture! It was really cool. It was drizzling, but not enough for us to get out our ponchos yet.

Our first stop was RNR-no line. While we were on the ride the skies opened up and it was POURING! Poncho time!!! we made our way to TOT- once again, no line. After TOT the rain was dying down. Temperature wise this was the best day our whole trip. The rain through out the day kept the temps lower.
Next we made our way to The Great Movie Ride. This was the longest wait for a ride we had the ENTIRE TRIP! Seriously! I think it was the rain. Everyone was just trying to get inside somewhere ASAP! Our wait was about 20-25 minutes
(yep 25 minutes was the longest standby wait our whole trip!)

Time for our FP+ for TSMM! I couldn’t figure out what all the hype was before riding this. But it was SO FUN! I am so happy we received those Pixie Dust FP, because our “fairy godmother” was right, we wanted to ride it again!

We stopped to check out One Man's Dream, and ended up in there a lot longer than we should have been there. My DH get's real into History and Details of things, and while going through OMD I thought his brain was going to explode when he saw the exhibit about how EPCOT was supposed to be a city.

Uh oh! Here we go!
He spent the whole rest of the trip pondering, questioning and then getting kinda angry at the fact that after Walt's death they scraped his vision. “Why? Why would they do that? You cant just change everything that has been planned?” A few choice words were also said that I cant quote here!
Good thing Im a nerd too! Because I've always found Walt's original vision for EPCOT to be fascinating as well. My favorite part of People Mover is the Diorama of EPCOT.

After Lunch at Starring Roles, we headed over to Backlot Tour. UHHH....what happened to this ride. There was nothing there! They didn’t have a tour guide, just a lame automated voice track. DH couldn’t figure out why I would make his ride such an awful thing. I tried to convince him that it used to have a lot more stuff...I don’t think he believed me!

Kermie!

uh oh!

After doing all the rides/shows over in the back corner, we headed to The Disney Animation Building. We ended up spending a lot more time in here than we thought. OOPS! There was so much to do and see. I would recommend adding a little buffering time to your schedule, because we stayed here so long we ended up missing our planned showing of Beauty & the Beast.

Indiana was another show that, at one time, was amazing. Now...it was just lame & boring.

Hollywood studios used to be my favorite park when I was younger. I am really happy that Disney is finally taking steps to change it up (as long as it doesn’t become Frozen Land)
DH and I were discussing how they could fix Hollywood Studios (without changing the name).
We think they should keep the Name HS, and have three lands or “studios.”
“Hollywood Studios”( ToT, RnR, Entrance, Chinese Theater, ect.)
Then they should have a “Pixar Studios” section, they really need more than an alley way!
And then the “Lucas Studios” section, a.k.a. Star Wars land.
Voila! Problem solved! You're welcome Disney.

Sci-Fi Dine In

We ate dinner at Sci-Fi Dine In, and then made our way to our ToT FP+ , which was not needed. There was, once again, no one in line. Finally it was Fantasmic time! I was really excited for this because every time I have been to Disney in the past Fantasmic had always been canceled! Finally after years and years of being disappointed by rain outs, it was going to happen!

Ohhh....photo filters!

We were exhausted from spending the whole day in a park. I wouldn’t recommend it. But the way that the shows are scheduled out and our ADR time - it really required us to stay the whole day. We saw everything but Beauty & the Beast, which we missed on accident.

Up Next: My 28th Birthday at Magic Kingdom!!

 

[larslovesyou]

6:30 am on Sept 18th, alarm goes off!
What better way to celebrate your 28th birthday than waking up at the crack of dawn to go to the Magic Kingdom!?
7:00 am hits! “Time to catch the bus!”
All is well...right? Wrong!

This was, by far, the only really negative, frustrating, temper tantrum inducing, birthday ruining ( overly dramatic, I know ) part of our entire trip.

Magic Kingdom was EMH this day, at 8 am. We arrived to the our bus stop (3 out of 4 at Coronado Springs) around 7:15. Lots of people were already waiting for a bus. We see a MK bus pulling up... its full!
I look around and see many frustrated faces, realizing that this must not have been the first full bus that has come by.
A second MK comes by...also full.
A third MK bus comes by...also full.
Is this some sort of joke!
Several buses for other parks stop and of course no one gets on.
An angry dad waves down and stops the next full MK bus and demands the driver to call a supervisor- at this point it was already 8:00 am ( goodbye EMH ) Many people were missing their breakfast reservations (even though they gave themselves way more than an hour to get to MK)
Also, keep in mind, there was still ANOTHER stop after ours, that had people waiting as well! CRAZY!

At this point I get furiously angry, and decide to walk to the 2nd bus stop (about a 6 minute walk away.) We get to bus stop #2 and a ¾ full MK bus shows up around 8:10. It fills up, and we pass the hoards of angry guest STILL waiting at the third & fourth bus stops for a ride to MK .
Thank goodness we walked over to the 2nd bus stop, or we would have had to wait though another cycle. I found this absolutely unacceptable!
If we hadn’t gone to another bus stop it would have been well over an hour of waiting for a bus to take us to MK.

OK....Drama Over!

Nearly Empty MK!

Very Creepy Fall Morning at MK.

We arrive at MK around 8:30. I was pretty bummed because I wanted to experience the whole hour of EMH, but MK wasn’t that busy and we had seen all of MK, with the exception of Fantasyland our first night here. We went straight to Peter Pan, Small World & Pooh. It was barley 9:00 a.m. and we were on our way to check out New Fantasyland!! We rode Little Mermaid, the empty queue took longer to walk through than the rides actual time. Seriously? How long is the queue? Very cool though! We were stuck on the Little Mermaid for about 15 minutes - once in front of Ariel and once in front of Ursula.

It's a Small World.

Look down! Scuttle Print at the Little Mermaid Queue!

After being stuck “under the seas” for much longer than we anticipated, DH was starving! Off to Gaston's we go!

Wow! The line was really long, and people were already buying pork shanks at 9:30! The line was also reallllllly long for people waiting to eat lunch at BOG! I don’t care how good a place is, nothing is worth waiting out in the heat for hours!

Hello Handsome!

By the way, we loved the theming of New Fantasyland. The last time I was at WDW was early 2012 and it was all behind walls still, so that it why I saved it for our EMH MK day. I wanted “the big reveal!” I've heard people say it is just “meh” - but I thought it was beautiful. It was even DH's favorite part of any WDW Park. Proof that it's not just for little princesses. I just wish the theming between New Fantasyland & the older Fantasyland blended together a little bit more. It definitely felt like two different lands.

Our FP + for the day were:

7DMT: 9:30 am
Buzz Lightyear: 1:00 pm
Pirates of Caribbean : 2:30 pm ( didn't use, or need)

The standby wait for 7DMT was about 45 minutes, at 9:50 - when we rode with our FP+. We loved the ride. I just wish it was a bit longer. DH, who doesn’t do well on rides, loved how smooth the coaster was. It was one of his favorite rides the whole trip.

We headed over to the Storybook Circus section of Fantasyland, and once again I loved the vintage circus theme. I know this section is geared towards kids, but I wish there were more rides based around this theming. It was definitely one of the he coolest themed gift shops in the whole park. From there, we rode the Steam Train all the way around the park. It was nice to get out of the sun because it was getting HOT! I had never rode the train before, so this was a nice first. Once we made it back to the Storybook Circus / Fantasyland, we had about 30 minutes before our lunch FP+ at BOG. DH found a weird circus tent full of mismatched furniture, and took a nap on a hot pink couch. Not sure what this area is supposed to be used for, but it was a nice spot to get away from the heat & people.

Happiest place on Earth, and this is what he does?!?!?

Do I need a FP+ for the napping tent?

FYI they have ALOT of outlets in here to recharge your cellphone too!

Nap time was over and it was time for lunch at BOG. We had a FP+ for 11:35. To see my reviews and photos check out my dining report here!

After a really great lunch at BOG, we had some time to kill before our FP+ for Buzz. I told my DH we were going to see the best thing at MK, and dragged him to ….Country Bear Jamboree!! I think once was enough for him! We cut through Adventureland and climbed through Swiss Family Treehouse, another first for me! The views were great from the top! I wish I had taken more photos from up there!

We rode Buzz with a FP+ ( standby wait was 40 minutes), and then went headed to our last stop – Monsters Inc. I'm not gonna lie...this show gives me anxiety every time! I have a huge fear of being called out & yet I go to this show every time I am at WDW!

We window shopped for a little while on Main Street & then went back to Coronado around 2-2:30

Up next - Day Four Continues...
Why is is your TR Title Mr. Toad ?
Birthday Evening Festivities!

 

[crazycatlady]

Great report! I found the link from your dining report and came on over. DH and I are planning a November trip (first without our kids!) and so am really interested in reading about the different moderates. I am looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip.

 

[larslovesyou]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Real life unfortunately has gotten in the way!!

I last left off leaving the Magic Kingdom, after a morning of EMH. For my 28th birthday, I originally chose to eat dinner at O'hana. After all of the not-so-hot reviews as of late, I decided to cancel our reservation that was at 9:30 (way too late anyways). I booked a reservation at Artist Point for 7:40 instead.

The plan was to take the bus back to MK & take the boat to WL. I wanted DH to take all of the different Disney Transportations! I planned dinner so that it would time up perfectly with us taking the boat back to MK right as Wishes started. It was going to be magical!

Welp! Mother Nature had other plans!

See that Dark Patch on the left of the photo? That is aWALL of rain that started to head our way the minute we got on our boat to the WL.

You can see the palm trees blowing in the wind, with Main Street Station & Cinderella's Castle in the background.

A little bit of sunshine left peaking out over the Grand Floridian.

We made it to the dock at WL, when the rain wall hit us. We had to hustle into WL before we were poured on! It continued to rain off and on all night long. When we were done with dinner, we found out wishes was canceled. The boat was canceled due to the storm, so the only way home was to take the bus to Downtown Disney, then transfer to our bus back to CSR.

For my review of Artist Point click here!

This was a LONNGGGG bus ride. It took over an hour in total.

Despite not having my birthday fireworks, it was a very magical birthday & couldn't complain!

Up Next : Day Five • Animal Kingdom

 

[larslovesyou]

Great report! I found the link from your dining report and came on over. DH and I are planning a November trip (first without our kids!) and so am really interested in reading about the different moderates. I am looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip.

Thanks for reading! I PROMISE I will finish this darn TR!

We loved Coronado Springs. If I could do it all again, I would have spent a day just at the resort. There is so much to do there!

I felt this resort was perfect for Couples. There were far less children at this resort, compared to the others (which was great when in the pool) & it felt very romantic.

I really liked the bar that was at CSR too. We didn't get anything from there, but the atmosphere was so cool, dark and romantic.

My other choice for Mod's would be Port Orleans French Quarter. I would love to stay there next. I stayed there when I was young, but don't remember much!

I wouldn't mind staying the Caribbean Beach once they finish their renovations, but the thought of getting stuck in one of the old rooms with the Finding Nemo wall paper and 90's neon comforters makes me shiver!

 

[scholastica]

I'm just joining in but I am really enjoying your TR so far!

 

[princess_momma]

Hello!! I love your tr!! What a great trip.

I think Coronado is just gorgeous...I love how sleek the rooms look! Sounds like multiple bus stops can be kind of rough!!

I'm obsessed with Hollywood Studios. I think we spend the most time there. We barely even too shows either. It's just wonderful there!

Your Epcot experience is SO different then ours. September is definitely a great time to go. My last trip was our first trip having the FP+ and before, I couldn't even tell why the Seas with Nemo would need a FP...but this past trip there was actually a wait! Mind you, it wasn't a long one but I was shocked. It seemed to be there was a line simply because of FP+...no one in the standby line could walk right on because they kept having to stop and let the FP+ people on!

My favorite pic so far was your one of the rainbow leading to the Tower of Terror...my favorite ride!

 

[larslovesyou]

Today we were going to my favorite park, Animal Kingdom.
I know a lot of people hate this park, and I DONT KNOW WHY! YOU ARE ALL CRAZY!!!
I could spend all day here...if it didn't get so dang hot in the afternoon ( and didn’t get soaked on Kali River Rapids.)

Today was EMH from 8am - 9 am. We arrived at 7:45 to the AK gate, and there were only about 20 other people there?!?! Umm... are we here on the wrong day? No seriously...this cant be right!

A CM asked us which hotel we were staying at and scanned our bands ( to make sure we were eligible for EMH), and told us to head to the gate. Glowing green Mickey heads and in we go at 7:50 am.


We headed to Dinosaur first. We took a short cut, where you take a sharp right to avoid Discovery Island, and end up at Dinosaur. As were were walking to Dinosaur, we saw the most amazing site EVER! (and of course I didn’t get a picture!)

Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Pluto, Goofy, Chip & Dale all walked out from backstage. The best part was- they were all holding hands! This was not for show either!DH and I were literally the only guest walking past there, and they seemed a little startled when they saw us!

I stopped dead in my tracks. DH said I looked so star struck, my jaw was on the ground. I wanted to ask for a picture with them all, but I knew their handler would say no! They all walked past holding hands, and stopped to wave at us. BEST DAY EVER!

We made it to Dinosaur, and we had to wait 3 more minutes for it to be “officially 8 am.”
All 5 people in line hopped into our jeep for our journey back in time. DH proclaimed this to be his favorite ride in all of WDW.

After Dinosaur, we cut through Dinoland USA, over to Asia, to ride Expedition Everest. We had FP+ for later in the day, but there was no wait, so we went ahead and rode. Our train wasn’t even full.

I love this ride and couldn’t wait to go again, but it made DH really sick when you go backwards. So once was enough.

We hung out in Asia for a little while to take it all in and check out some of the animal exhibits.

We spent a long time with the 2 CM at the Gibbons exhibit. They showed us all sorts of cool little details of the habitat, and really loved talking about their “friends” They even pointed out the new baby they had, and talked about the family structure of the animals. I loved how much knowledge they had on just this one animal. AK CMs have got to be my favorite!

For those of you who Listen to the DIS Unplugged Podcast, there is a great one on Animal Kingdom. They talk about all the cool details of the park, and even make Dinoland USA seem cool( yes...you heard right! ) I would have never noticed the details of this park if it were for that podcast SO thank you DIS team!

One of my favorite details they talked about were the details of the roofs in Asia. The more wood that is on the roof the wealthier the business owner/residents are.

I could go on and on about all the cool things, but do yourself a favor and listen to the DIS team discuss it. They do a much better job.

Here is Part One

Here is Part Two

We were on our way to Rafiki's Conservation Station, but the first train didn’t leave until 9:15, it was still only 9:00 am! SO we headed over to the Kilimanjaro Safari. There was no wait, so we rode without using our FP+. 9 am was a great time to go. It wasn’t too hot yet and it was still early so all of the animals were out & about.

DH caught me in the act.

I love Rafiki's Planet Watch/ Conservation Station. We kept waiting to see what animal they were going to be “operating” on, and waited and waited and waited. It ended up being a parrot, who was getting a routine exam. However, because he was so small you couldn’t see anything with the two vets and 3 vet techs standing around him

I went to drown my sorrows with the pigs and goats. I love these little guys!

Post To Be Continued due to Picture Limit!

 

[larslovesyou]

I'm just joining in but I am really enjoying your TR so far!

Thanks for joining!

Hello!! I love your tr!! What a great trip.

I think Coronado is just gorgeous...I love how sleek the rooms look! Sounds like multiple bus stops can be kind of rough!!

I'm obsessed with Hollywood Studios. I think we spend the most time there. We barely even too shows either. It's just wonderful there!

Your Epcot experience is SO different then ours. September is definitely a great time to go. My last trip was our first trip having the FP+ and before, I couldn't even tell why the Seas with Nemo would need a FP...but this past trip there was actually a wait! Mind you, it wasn't a long one but I was shocked. It seemed to be there was a line simply because of FP+...no one in the standby line could walk right on because they kept having to stop and let the FP+ people on!

My favorite pic so far was your one of the rainbow leading to the Tower of Terror...my favorite ride!

Thanks for joining in! I think we had a lot of luck with the parks. I have read others TRs from the same week we were at WDW and they seemed to have much longer waits!

I can't recommend going in early and leaving mid-day enough! Especially in September - when its so hot.

 

[Landslide305]

I just finished up your dining report and came to read the trip report. Great job on both!

 

[Sailormoon2]

Great report, and I am so glad all your planning and use of touringplans really paid off, in that you were able to see everything but also have `down`time.