Day 3--sunday (83 Degrees) Nov. 13
Magic Kingdom. 8:15 Am Priority Seating At Crystal Palace
Wake Up At 5:30 Am...out The Door By 6:30. We Got Lost Trying To Find Wdw, But Thankfully We Didn't Have To Go Far Before Seeing Another Sign Pointing The Way. Arrived At The Ttc At 7:15. No One Was At The Gate To Take Parking Money Nor Guide Us On Where To Park. Asked One Of The Tram Drivers, He Directed Us To The Diamond Parking Lot. Since We Hadn't Paid For Parking, We Kept Our Fingers Crossed That Our Cars Would Not Be Towed While In The The Kingdom. It Was About A 7 Minute Walk To The Monorail.
We Took The Resort Monorail To The Magic Kingdom. We Stopped At The Polynesian And Floridian Resorts Along The Way. The Floridian Is Gorgeous! If We Ever Become Rich, This Is The Place I'd Like To Stay.
There's A Small Line Of People Waiting To Get In The Gate. Going Through Security Was Quick. Had A Problem With Steve's 10 Day Pass. It Had Been Demagnetized. Guest Relations Gave Him A Paper Replacement Which Worked Fine For The Rest Of Our Vacation. Unzipping Our Bags For Security And The Finger Scan Became Routine After The First Couple Of Days.
It Was Very Cool To Walk Down Main Street With Hardly Anyone There. Took Some Great Shots Of The Castle. We Only Had To Wait About 10 Minutes Before We Were Called To Our Table At The Crystal Palace. This Is One Place Where You Get A Bang For Your Buck! They Had Waffles, Pancakes, Sausage, Bacon, Hashbrowns, Smoked Salmon, Bagels, Cream Cheese, Fresh Fruit, Scrambled Eggs, Orange Juice, And Much More. Pooh, Tigger And Piglet Came To Our Table. Our Grandsons Loved It!
By The Time Breakfast Was Over, The Park Had Opened To The Public. Magic Kingdom Is Layed Out Almost Exactly Like Dl. All Of Us Love The Fact That We Already Know This Park So. We Don't Have To Keep Looking At The Map To Figure Out Where Things Are. We Headed To Adventureland. We Rode The Jungle Ride, The Tiki Room And Pirates. (i Really Missed The Bayou Scene And The 2nd Drop On This One) There Were No Lines At All. We Then Went On To Frontierland And Rode Both Thunder And Splash Mt. Both Had Standby Lines Of 10 Minutes. In Other Words, We Walked Right On These As Well.
We Strolled Through Liberty Square. The Haunted Mansion Was Down For Refurbishment Until Wednesday, So We Made Our Way To Fantasyland. We Walked Right Into Philharmagic. I Loved This Attraction! Our Group Broke Up At This Point. Steve Took His Boys On Peter Pan, Dumbo And Snow White While The Rest Of Us Checked Out Some Of The Shops. I Bought A Tinker Bell Visor. It Seemed To Me That The Sun In Florida Is Closer/hotter & Brighter Than It Is In Washington.
It Was About 1:00 When Steve And The Boys Were Done, So We Headed To Pinnochio Haus For A Bite To Eat. I Had Their Turkey Sub Which Was Great And The Rest Had Chicken Strips Which Were A Popular Hit For The Rest Of Our Trip.
Next Was Tomorrowland. Although I Had Read Some Disappointing Reviews About Stitch, We Decided To Go Ahead And Go In Because There Were So Few People In The Park And No Waiting For The Rides. Big Mistake! Kyle Was Terrified When Stitch Came And Bounced On His Harnesses In The Dark. This Little Guy Doesn't Get Scared By Much, But Pitch Black Darkness Is One Thing That Does. (none Of Us Knew This Before, Though)
We Then Rode Buzz Lightyear. Kyle And Tyler Loved This One. Kyle Got Over 100,000 Points. And I Thought I Was Doing Good At 3,500! Lol!
Space Mt. Was Next. After What Happened At Stitch, All Of Us Were A Bit Worried About Kyle Riding This One, Especially Since The Seating Is One Person In Each Seat And Not 2 Side By Side Like At Disneyland. But Kyle Insisted He Wanted To Go On It, So Michelle Sat In The Front, Kyle In The Middle And Steve In The Back. That Little Stinker Was Laughing And Yelping During The Entire Ride. Wasn't Scared A Bit About Sitting Alone. He Said He Wasn't Scared Because There Were Stars And Planets.
Steve Took The Boys On Indianapolis Speedway While The Rest Of Us Rested Our Tired Feet. When The Boys Were Done We Decided To Ride The Train Back Over To Frontierland. What's This? The Train Doesn't Stop In Tomorrowland Like It Does At Dl? Bummer. So We Hoofed It Back Across The Park. On The Way, The Boys Used Some Of Their Disney Money To Buy Some Davey Crocket Type Toy Rifles.
We Wanted To Ride Thunder Mt. Again. The Standby Line Was 20 Minutes, So We Got A Fast Pass This Time. While We Were Waiting, We Walked Up The Path For Some Mcdonald's Fries And A Coke. After Thunder Mt. We Watched The Country Bear Show. None Of Us Were Too Excited About This Attraction.
It Was Getting Dark By This Time, So We Hopped The Train And Headed Back To Main Street. The Christmas Lights Were Lit By The Time We Got There, And It Was So Pretty. All Of Us Were Still A Little Tired From The Day Before, So We Decided To Take In The Fireworks Another Night.
Our Villa Was Off East 192. Going Out Of Wdw There Is A Sign That Says 192 West. We Don't Want West, So We Figure If We Go Straight, There Would Be Another Off Ramp That Will Take Us To East 192. Not! We Ended Up On I4 North. We Look For An Off Ramp, But Nary A One In Sight For The Next 5 Miles. Lots Of On Ramps...but No Off Ramps. Grrrrr! I Don't Remember How We Found Our Way Back To Kissimmee. What Should Have Been A Simple 15 Minute Drive Took Us 45.
Day 4: Monday---nov. 14 (83 Degrees)
Mgm/disney Studios
Up At 7:00 Am. We Stopped At Mcdonald's For Breakfast. Funny...most Of Us Are Not Breakfast Eaters, But On This Trip We All Woke Up Famished And Had To Eat Right Away.
A Small Crowd Waits To Get Into The Park. Everyone Else Heads Off To The Right Of Mickey's Hat To Ride Tower Of Terror And R'n'roller Coaster, So We Go In The Opposite Direction. This Side Of The Park Is Practically Deserted, So We Took Our Time Just Soaking In The Atmosphere. We Passed The Indiana Jones Stunt Show, Took In The Time Of It's First Act, Then Stroll On Over To Star Tours. There Was Virtually No Line. We Just Walked Up The Ramp And Got Right Into Our Shuttle. This Attraction Really Needs To Be Updated. I Hope The Rumors Are True That George Lucas And Disney Are Talking About Doing Just That. Both Kyle And Tyler Thought It Was A Great Ride Because They Had Never Been On It Before. Kyle Especially Loved It Because He's A Big Star Wars Fan And Has Lots Of Action Figures At Home.
By This Time, Indiana Jones Was Getting Ready To Start So We Back-tracked To See The Show. Where Did All These People Come From? I Don't Think There Was Even One Seat Left In The Entire Stadium. By The Way, This Was A Great Attraction. After Leaving Indiana, We Followed The Crowd Over To Muppets 3d. I Got Stuck Way Down At The Right End Of A Row So Didn't Get To Really Enjoy The 3d Effects, But The Little Guys Thought It Was Good.
When We Came Out Of The Building, It Was Pouring Down Rain. Man, Was It Ever Humid! We Found Some Shelter And Waited It Out. Only Lasted About 20 Minutes. We Then Headed Over To The Great Movie Ride. Our Driver Was Part Of The Gangster Scene. It Was A Pretty Good Attraction. Next, We Went To See The Little Mermaid. Michelle And I Loved This Show! The Boys Didn't Enjoy It As Much---must Be A Girl/guy Thing.
Finally It Was Time For The Tower Of Terror. There Was Only A 10 Minute Standby Line For Both Tot And R'n'roller Coaster So We Didn't Have To Get Fastpasses For Either Attraction. I Sure Do Wish Someone Had Told Me About There Being Handles On Both Sides Of The Seats On Tot. There Were 8 Of Us, And Not One Of Us Saw Them When We Rode The First Time. After The 1st Terrifying Drop, We Grabbed A-hold Of The Only Things We Could....each Other. My Rear Must Have Come Off The Seat A Good 6 Inches. I Was Praying The Seat Belt Wouldn't Break, Or My Family Would Have Had To Grab Me On Thier Way Back Up. I Don't Know How People Can Just Hold Their Hands In The Air During This Ride. The Next Time We Rode This, We Found The Handles And I Enjoyed It Much More. I Got A Different Kind Of Scare The Second Time We Rode Though. One Of The Workers Was Hiding In The Dark And When I Rounded The Corner, She Leaned From The Darkness Right Into My Face. I Didn't Know I Could Still Scream After All These Years, But, Boy, Can I. I Had To Hold Onto The Railing To Keep From Falling Flat On My Face From Shear Terror. It Was A Funny Kind Of Scary, But Scary Just The Same.
The Rock'n'roller Coaster Had A Terrific Take Off, But The Rest Of The Ride Went By In A Blur. I Think I Liked California Screamin' Better Simply Because It Isn't In The Dark.
Steve, Michelle And Their Boys Hoofed It Back Across The Park To Take In The Lights, Action Stunt Show. Dewayne, Chris And Corey Went On Tot Again. I Saved Us A Spot Near The Path That Would Take Us To Fantasmic. Beauty And The Beast Had Just Started So I Got To Listen To The Show. Whoever Was Singing Acapella At The Beginning Were Wonderful.
The Family Met Me Just Before 5:30 When We Were Allowed To Find Seats For The 7:00 Performance Of Fantasmic. Kyle Wanted To Run, And Michelle Was On Her Cell With Her Mom, So I Pushed The Stroller Up The Path. I Guess Everyone Forgot All About Little Ole' Me Trailing Behind Them. When I Got About 2/3 Of The Way Up The Path, I Had To Remove Everything From The Stroller And Leave It With An Attendent. Everyone Had Dumped All Their Bags, Purses, Toys Etc. In The Stroller And I Had To Pack Them The Rest Of The Way Up The Hill. Not Very Nice Of Them. I Get To The Entrance, And There They All Are Seated, Nice And Comfy, Eating Hot Dogs. Humphh! I Just May Accidently-on Purpose, Burn Their Thanksgiving Dinner This Year.
Now, I Have Truly Tried Not To Compare Wdw With Dl Too Much, But Fantasmic Is The One Attraction Where I Believe Dl Shines. Wdw Uses A Lot More Water Imagery Where Dl Uses Live Scenes Such As Floats And Ships. I Missed The Fantasia Stuff As Well. The Sound System Was Just As Powerful Though And I Still Love The Abrupt Last Notes.
We Managed To Get Lost Again Going Back To The Villa...so What Else Is New? House Is Still Too Hot And Pool Too Cold Even After Calling Management And Leaving A Message The Night Before. Got To Bed About 10:00.
Magic Kingdom. 8:15 Am Priority Seating At Crystal Palace
Wake Up At 5:30 Am...out The Door By 6:30. We Got Lost Trying To Find Wdw, But Thankfully We Didn't Have To Go Far Before Seeing Another Sign Pointing The Way. Arrived At The Ttc At 7:15. No One Was At The Gate To Take Parking Money Nor Guide Us On Where To Park. Asked One Of The Tram Drivers, He Directed Us To The Diamond Parking Lot. Since We Hadn't Paid For Parking, We Kept Our Fingers Crossed That Our Cars Would Not Be Towed While In The The Kingdom. It Was About A 7 Minute Walk To The Monorail.
We Took The Resort Monorail To The Magic Kingdom. We Stopped At The Polynesian And Floridian Resorts Along The Way. The Floridian Is Gorgeous! If We Ever Become Rich, This Is The Place I'd Like To Stay.
There's A Small Line Of People Waiting To Get In The Gate. Going Through Security Was Quick. Had A Problem With Steve's 10 Day Pass. It Had Been Demagnetized. Guest Relations Gave Him A Paper Replacement Which Worked Fine For The Rest Of Our Vacation. Unzipping Our Bags For Security And The Finger Scan Became Routine After The First Couple Of Days.
It Was Very Cool To Walk Down Main Street With Hardly Anyone There. Took Some Great Shots Of The Castle. We Only Had To Wait About 10 Minutes Before We Were Called To Our Table At The Crystal Palace. This Is One Place Where You Get A Bang For Your Buck! They Had Waffles, Pancakes, Sausage, Bacon, Hashbrowns, Smoked Salmon, Bagels, Cream Cheese, Fresh Fruit, Scrambled Eggs, Orange Juice, And Much More. Pooh, Tigger And Piglet Came To Our Table. Our Grandsons Loved It!
By The Time Breakfast Was Over, The Park Had Opened To The Public. Magic Kingdom Is Layed Out Almost Exactly Like Dl. All Of Us Love The Fact That We Already Know This Park So. We Don't Have To Keep Looking At The Map To Figure Out Where Things Are. We Headed To Adventureland. We Rode The Jungle Ride, The Tiki Room And Pirates. (i Really Missed The Bayou Scene And The 2nd Drop On This One) There Were No Lines At All. We Then Went On To Frontierland And Rode Both Thunder And Splash Mt. Both Had Standby Lines Of 10 Minutes. In Other Words, We Walked Right On These As Well.
We Strolled Through Liberty Square. The Haunted Mansion Was Down For Refurbishment Until Wednesday, So We Made Our Way To Fantasyland. We Walked Right Into Philharmagic. I Loved This Attraction! Our Group Broke Up At This Point. Steve Took His Boys On Peter Pan, Dumbo And Snow White While The Rest Of Us Checked Out Some Of The Shops. I Bought A Tinker Bell Visor. It Seemed To Me That The Sun In Florida Is Closer/hotter & Brighter Than It Is In Washington.
It Was About 1:00 When Steve And The Boys Were Done, So We Headed To Pinnochio Haus For A Bite To Eat. I Had Their Turkey Sub Which Was Great And The Rest Had Chicken Strips Which Were A Popular Hit For The Rest Of Our Trip.
Next Was Tomorrowland. Although I Had Read Some Disappointing Reviews About Stitch, We Decided To Go Ahead And Go In Because There Were So Few People In The Park And No Waiting For The Rides. Big Mistake! Kyle Was Terrified When Stitch Came And Bounced On His Harnesses In The Dark. This Little Guy Doesn't Get Scared By Much, But Pitch Black Darkness Is One Thing That Does. (none Of Us Knew This Before, Though)
We Then Rode Buzz Lightyear. Kyle And Tyler Loved This One. Kyle Got Over 100,000 Points. And I Thought I Was Doing Good At 3,500! Lol!
Space Mt. Was Next. After What Happened At Stitch, All Of Us Were A Bit Worried About Kyle Riding This One, Especially Since The Seating Is One Person In Each Seat And Not 2 Side By Side Like At Disneyland. But Kyle Insisted He Wanted To Go On It, So Michelle Sat In The Front, Kyle In The Middle And Steve In The Back. That Little Stinker Was Laughing And Yelping During The Entire Ride. Wasn't Scared A Bit About Sitting Alone. He Said He Wasn't Scared Because There Were Stars And Planets.
Steve Took The Boys On Indianapolis Speedway While The Rest Of Us Rested Our Tired Feet. When The Boys Were Done We Decided To Ride The Train Back Over To Frontierland. What's This? The Train Doesn't Stop In Tomorrowland Like It Does At Dl? Bummer. So We Hoofed It Back Across The Park. On The Way, The Boys Used Some Of Their Disney Money To Buy Some Davey Crocket Type Toy Rifles.
We Wanted To Ride Thunder Mt. Again. The Standby Line Was 20 Minutes, So We Got A Fast Pass This Time. While We Were Waiting, We Walked Up The Path For Some Mcdonald's Fries And A Coke. After Thunder Mt. We Watched The Country Bear Show. None Of Us Were Too Excited About This Attraction.
It Was Getting Dark By This Time, So We Hopped The Train And Headed Back To Main Street. The Christmas Lights Were Lit By The Time We Got There, And It Was So Pretty. All Of Us Were Still A Little Tired From The Day Before, So We Decided To Take In The Fireworks Another Night.
Our Villa Was Off East 192. Going Out Of Wdw There Is A Sign That Says 192 West. We Don't Want West, So We Figure If We Go Straight, There Would Be Another Off Ramp That Will Take Us To East 192. Not! We Ended Up On I4 North. We Look For An Off Ramp, But Nary A One In Sight For The Next 5 Miles. Lots Of On Ramps...but No Off Ramps. Grrrrr! I Don't Remember How We Found Our Way Back To Kissimmee. What Should Have Been A Simple 15 Minute Drive Took Us 45.
Day 4: Monday---nov. 14 (83 Degrees)
Mgm/disney Studios
Up At 7:00 Am. We Stopped At Mcdonald's For Breakfast. Funny...most Of Us Are Not Breakfast Eaters, But On This Trip We All Woke Up Famished And Had To Eat Right Away.
A Small Crowd Waits To Get Into The Park. Everyone Else Heads Off To The Right Of Mickey's Hat To Ride Tower Of Terror And R'n'roller Coaster, So We Go In The Opposite Direction. This Side Of The Park Is Practically Deserted, So We Took Our Time Just Soaking In The Atmosphere. We Passed The Indiana Jones Stunt Show, Took In The Time Of It's First Act, Then Stroll On Over To Star Tours. There Was Virtually No Line. We Just Walked Up The Ramp And Got Right Into Our Shuttle. This Attraction Really Needs To Be Updated. I Hope The Rumors Are True That George Lucas And Disney Are Talking About Doing Just That. Both Kyle And Tyler Thought It Was A Great Ride Because They Had Never Been On It Before. Kyle Especially Loved It Because He's A Big Star Wars Fan And Has Lots Of Action Figures At Home.
By This Time, Indiana Jones Was Getting Ready To Start So We Back-tracked To See The Show. Where Did All These People Come From? I Don't Think There Was Even One Seat Left In The Entire Stadium. By The Way, This Was A Great Attraction. After Leaving Indiana, We Followed The Crowd Over To Muppets 3d. I Got Stuck Way Down At The Right End Of A Row So Didn't Get To Really Enjoy The 3d Effects, But The Little Guys Thought It Was Good.
When We Came Out Of The Building, It Was Pouring Down Rain. Man, Was It Ever Humid! We Found Some Shelter And Waited It Out. Only Lasted About 20 Minutes. We Then Headed Over To The Great Movie Ride. Our Driver Was Part Of The Gangster Scene. It Was A Pretty Good Attraction. Next, We Went To See The Little Mermaid. Michelle And I Loved This Show! The Boys Didn't Enjoy It As Much---must Be A Girl/guy Thing.
Finally It Was Time For The Tower Of Terror. There Was Only A 10 Minute Standby Line For Both Tot And R'n'roller Coaster So We Didn't Have To Get Fastpasses For Either Attraction. I Sure Do Wish Someone Had Told Me About There Being Handles On Both Sides Of The Seats On Tot. There Were 8 Of Us, And Not One Of Us Saw Them When We Rode The First Time. After The 1st Terrifying Drop, We Grabbed A-hold Of The Only Things We Could....each Other. My Rear Must Have Come Off The Seat A Good 6 Inches. I Was Praying The Seat Belt Wouldn't Break, Or My Family Would Have Had To Grab Me On Thier Way Back Up. I Don't Know How People Can Just Hold Their Hands In The Air During This Ride. The Next Time We Rode This, We Found The Handles And I Enjoyed It Much More. I Got A Different Kind Of Scare The Second Time We Rode Though. One Of The Workers Was Hiding In The Dark And When I Rounded The Corner, She Leaned From The Darkness Right Into My Face. I Didn't Know I Could Still Scream After All These Years, But, Boy, Can I. I Had To Hold Onto The Railing To Keep From Falling Flat On My Face From Shear Terror. It Was A Funny Kind Of Scary, But Scary Just The Same.
The Rock'n'roller Coaster Had A Terrific Take Off, But The Rest Of The Ride Went By In A Blur. I Think I Liked California Screamin' Better Simply Because It Isn't In The Dark.
Steve, Michelle And Their Boys Hoofed It Back Across The Park To Take In The Lights, Action Stunt Show. Dewayne, Chris And Corey Went On Tot Again. I Saved Us A Spot Near The Path That Would Take Us To Fantasmic. Beauty And The Beast Had Just Started So I Got To Listen To The Show. Whoever Was Singing Acapella At The Beginning Were Wonderful.
The Family Met Me Just Before 5:30 When We Were Allowed To Find Seats For The 7:00 Performance Of Fantasmic. Kyle Wanted To Run, And Michelle Was On Her Cell With Her Mom, So I Pushed The Stroller Up The Path. I Guess Everyone Forgot All About Little Ole' Me Trailing Behind Them. When I Got About 2/3 Of The Way Up The Path, I Had To Remove Everything From The Stroller And Leave It With An Attendent. Everyone Had Dumped All Their Bags, Purses, Toys Etc. In The Stroller And I Had To Pack Them The Rest Of The Way Up The Hill. Not Very Nice Of Them. I Get To The Entrance, And There They All Are Seated, Nice And Comfy, Eating Hot Dogs. Humphh! I Just May Accidently-on Purpose, Burn Their Thanksgiving Dinner This Year.
Now, I Have Truly Tried Not To Compare Wdw With Dl Too Much, But Fantasmic Is The One Attraction Where I Believe Dl Shines. Wdw Uses A Lot More Water Imagery Where Dl Uses Live Scenes Such As Floats And Ships. I Missed The Fantasia Stuff As Well. The Sound System Was Just As Powerful Though And I Still Love The Abrupt Last Notes.
We Managed To Get Lost Again Going Back To The Villa...so What Else Is New? House Is Still Too Hot And Pool Too Cold Even After Calling Management And Leaving A Message The Night Before. Got To Bed About 10:00.
