Whew - Four parks in four days! 6/6-6/10 with pics!

[cinderkelli]

Hey everyone! Just got back from WDW about a week ago and am ready and rarin' to write my trip report! I have been reading so many lately getting ready for my trip, so I tried to remember to take pictures as I went so I could have them in here. I love the TRs with pics.

So here is a little history on this trip. My husband went to the big Microsoft Tech Ed conference in Orlando last week which is why I went. He found out months ago that he might be going, but didn't even tell me because he knew I would freak out and get excited and that if it didn't work out I would be super disappointed. So he only told me when he was sure he could go. I couldn't believe he had known for a while it was probable and hadn't told me! But whatever, I was immediately stoked. He would have a hotel paid for, all I had to do was get on a plane!

Well, he had booked his flight out of Houston to MCO then MCO back to Dallas because we were in Houston the weekend before. I wasn't flying out until Wednesday night, so I start looking for a flight and they are EXPENSIVE! So I look for weeks and finally find one on Airtran for about $200, but I would have to connect through Atlanta. Whatever, better than paying $600 for direct flights on American. SO hotel? Check. Plane ticket? Check. The last thing was to get park tickets. Well, I work for Travelocity, so technically I am a travel agent, even though I don't actually personallly book trips for people. But I knew that we got some sort of discount so I checked in to it and turns out I can get my park tickets for about $100 cheaper than normal. So I sign up, have to pick them up and pay for them at the gate my first day there, and I am good to go!

With the major things planned, I start obsessing over which parks to go to on what days and making my iteneraries. My husband would be at his conference Thurs and most of Friday so I had alone time all to myself at the World! This was a first, and you will find I had many firsts at WDW on this trip. Good and bad...

Up next, my flight in and my first day at the parks!

 

[Nicole786]

Awesome, can't wait to hear more!

 

[cinderkelli]

Do many of you go to work the day you are leaving for Disney World? It is SO HARD! I did not want to be at work and I think all I did most of the day was read the DIS boards and dream about being there already. So I leave work at 3 to run and catch my plane. I had never flown air tran before so I was a little nervous, but I got assigned an exit row on my second leg of the flight! So that was my first 'first' of the trip and let me tell you. They have a LOT of extra room. It was very nice. AND they give you pretzels! I pretty much only fly American and they do not give you anything but a soda anymore. So I was a happy girl will all my extra leg space and pretzels.

The flight to Atlanta was up and down and straight to the gate, and the flight from Atlanta to MCO was too. I got straight on a bus to the Enterprise rental place and headed out. By now it is 11 o clock at night and I am tired. I have planned to be at the Magic Kingdom the next morning at opening and I want to get to bed as fast as possible. I get to Enterprise and there are, what seems like, a million people in line. Who knew so many people rented cars late at night? Now I do. I waited FOREVER to get a car and finally was on the road a little after midnight. I had to run by City Walk at that 'other' theme park to pick up my husband who had been there with some friends, then we headed to the hotel. We stayed off site at the Springhill Suites right by the Orange County Convention Center. I much prefer to stay on property, but it was a nice spacious hotel. Had a pretty good continental buffet in the morning, so thumbs up if I have to stay off property.

So we get in bed and go to sleep. I have the alarm set for about 7 the next morning so I can be up bright and early for MK. Well, we didn't get to sleep until after 1, and I do not do well without my 8 hours. So tried as I might at 7 am, I could NOT get out of bed. Even with Mickey calling my name! I roll out of bed around 8:30 and hurry as fast as I can to get ready. Another reason I hate staying off site, is you have to drive in, pay to park, and especially at the MK you have to take a tram to the monorail, wait for the monorail, then take it over to MK. It just seems to take forever and I was anxious to get there!

I got to the front gate around 10 am, and headed to guest relations to pick up my tickets. Now, hold on to your seats, because this is where the magic happens. I showed her my travel agent ID and my confirmation for the tickets and she gets them out for me. She hands them to me explaining that they are four day park hopper passes. I say great and go to hand her my credit card. She looks at my funny and says 'do you need to buy more tickets?' I say 'no, this one isn't paid for'. She just shrugs her shoulders and smiles and says 'well they gave them to you'. Did I just hear her right? I got my tickets for FREE? I was so ecstatic. I don't know if it was like a Year of a Million Dreams thing or what, but I got my Disney park tickets for FREE! So I basically float in to the Magic Kingdom, as if I wasn't already as happy as could be to be there, I just saved almost $200! Sweet!!!!

So once my feet are back on the ground I start to assess my itenerary. Well, I have sort of already blown it by being so late, so I decide just to toss it in the trash. Yes, another first for me. I spend lots of time on iteneraries for Disney and they are never just tossed aside. But it was sort of a nice feeling. I was all by myself and could do whatever I wanted all day long in one of my favorite places! What could be better? I headed straight for Space Mountain and grabbed a fastpass, then I headed back down Main Street for some breakfast. I had heard about the goodies at the Main Street Bakery so I headed in there. I picked out a chocolate chip muffin and some coffee and found a table. I apologize that I forgot to take a picture of my first WDW food! It was a chocolate chocolate chip muffin with powdered sugar on the top. I probably looked like a ten year old sitting there eating it getting it all over my face and fingers and licking it off, but it was delicious! I basically had a chocolate cupcake for breakfast, but since they called it a muffin...I say it's ok. You will find that I justify my food a lot even when I know it isn't good for me.

After breakfast I decided to test out a theory I had heard, I believe, on the WDW Radio Show podcast. Lou had mentioned that they were testing out different fastpass options, such as you could have two for different type attractions, and that we should test it out if we were in the parks. So I knew I wanted to ride Peter Pan at some point so I headed over to see if they would let me have one. Well low and behold, they gave me another fastpass! I guess because it is a different type ride than Space Mountain. Very cool. After that I walked next door to Mickey's Philharmagic and watched that. I LOVE that show. It is by far the best 4D show in WDW in my opnion. It is one of the things I can't wait to take my mom and sister to in the fall because it is new since they have last been there. Just so cute.

By then it was time for my Space Mountain fastpass so I head over and get on. I love SM, but I got put in the last seat and boy is it jerky! Being in the first seat on SM is about one of the most fun things in my opinion. Oh well. At this point it isn't time for my PP FP, so I head over to Splash Mountain to see if they will give me another FP. Turns out, SM and PP are the same 'type' of ride I guess because it wouldn't give me one and it said because I had one for PP. Then I tried to get one for Big Thunder Mountain and it let me! Guess this is in the 'thrill ride' category.

I headed back to PP and rode that and then it was time for lunch. Well I knew where that was going to be. I had been reading all about Figaro Fries at Pinocchio Village Haus on the boards and knew I had to have some. If you don't know what they are, they are basically french fries, covered in cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato and ranch dressing. Look at all those veggies on there! Must be healthy right?

Ok, I have to go for a while, but I will try to finish at least day one today!

 

[cinderkelli]

Wow I just realized how long my last post was! I will definitely try not to go on so much.

So after scarfing down the Figaro Fries I headed over to BTM via Adventureland. However, one the way, I experience another first. A not so good one. I was walking between Fantasyland and Liberty Square and I saw a commotion ahead of me. My first thought was someone was hurt because everyone was looking down. So I walked towards it and what do I see? A SNAKE!!!! Yes, that's right. There are snakes at the Magic Kingdom. It was just a little grass snake, but still. A guy was trying to corral it and finally managed to get it to swim down in to a drain. CREEPY!!!

Anyway, I made my way to Adventureland. I figured if the line for Pirates wasn't too long I would ride it, but it said 40 minutes and was way long so I kept on going. As I was walking up to BTM I got a laugh out of the theming. One box said 'Lytum and Hyde' was the company.

So after BTM I went back to POTC and the line was much shorter, but it still said 40 minute wait. I had heard the lines hadn't been as long as they shower, so I figured I would just wait since my FP for SM wasn't valid for a while. I timed it and it was only 25 minutes. Yea! I had not ridden POTC since they redid it and I really liked it. The mist effect at the beginning is very cool and the Johnny Depp animatronic is AMAZING! It looks so real. I swear he was looking right at me. =)

After Pirates I rode Splash Mountain, which is one of my favorite rides, when I experience yet another first. (I told you there were a lot of them). The ride broke down. Now I always hear about people getting stuck on different rides, but I have NEVER had a ride break down on me. But all of the sudden the music stops and so does our boat, but the animatronics are still moving and dancing, which is also quite creepy. The overhead comes on and says something about how Brer Bear and Brer Fox are making trouble up river and to stay in your boat. Hehe. Cute. It started after not too long and we were on our way down the chute!

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I stayed at MK until around 6, mostly walking around, ate some popcorn, etc. Around 6 I left to go meet my husband at that other park in Orlando. Microsoft rented it out for their conference and we had the whole park to ourselves, along with free food and nice beverages. =) It was actually pretty nice, but would have been cooler if they rented out, I don't know, say....Disney?

So we got in a bit late and I had to get up early the next day to be at MK at 8:15 for the Keys to the Kingdom tour. Will I make it? Wait and see....

Highs of the day: Everything starting with free tickets to great weather to delicious Figaro Fries!

Lows of the day: Sleeping too late and snakes in a theme park! (that could be a sequal...)

 

[cinderkelli]

So you may remember how I don't do well without my 8 hours of sleep, so when I say we didn't get home from that 'other' park until about 1 o clock coupled with the fact that I had to be at a Keys to the Kingdom tour at 8:15, you immediately know there is trouble ahead.

My husband and I had debated on what to do for transportation because he was going to meet me at Epcot later that afternoon and we only had one car. The shuttle from our hotel only ran in the morning and at night, so I, being the kind and loving wife that I am , told him I would take the shuttle and he could have the car. I mean it came at 7:35 in the AM and no way would it take more than 45 minutes to get to MK right? WRONG! I got up in time for the shuttle - VERY tired mind you - but I made it. Only to find out they pick up at every hotel in the Orlando area! We didn't even finish picking up at all the hotels until 8:15!!! I am panicky by this point. Remember that loving helpful wife? She has gone out the window and is cursing her husband under her breath. I have, by this time, decided he should be able to read the future and known this would happen, and should have gotten a cab later to Epcot. I don't make it to the Magic Kingdom until 9 AM. What time did my tour start? 8:30 people. I was on the verge of tears when I checked in, knowing I would miss almost an hour of my tour. Well, Mickey Mouse was watching over me that day! Turns out they couldn't do the 8:30 tour because they were filming a commercial right before park opening so they made the 8:30 tour go with the 9:00 tour! He said I had only just missed them and took me right across the street where they were just doing introductions. Talk about doing a happy dance!

So the tour was awesome. There are plenty of threads about it, so I won't go in to detail, but since the Haunted Mansion was closed we didn't get to go on that, but I did take some pictures of what it looks like...

That is the entrance to the queue! It is all boarded up and it was sort of depressing to look at. But this letter on the gate from 'Master Gracey' made me smile...

That's Disney for you! They can't just tell you it is closed.

We ate lunch at the Columbia Harbor House on the tour and it was good! I hadn't eaten here before, but the tuna sandwich was really good! Highly recommended, although I didn't want my tour mates to think I was a weirdo so I didn't take a pic.

After the tour I met my husband over at Epcot. Now I am, obviously, a Disney lover. My husband? Not so much. He went a lot as a child so I think he got burnt out. I told him if he would just go to the parks, I wouldn't make him do anything he didn't want to. I lured him to Epcot with promises of drinking around the world and he liked the sound of that, but was adamant about not riding any rides! I said fine. I would be back in September, so I didn't care too much. However, I got there before him and thought I might just try to get on a couple. When I told him that he says 'Well don't ride anything you think I might like!' Haha! My plan is working! He will be a Disney lover before you know it!

So I went and rode the new Sea with Nemo and Friends cause I hadn't seen it yet. Ok, now I love all things Disney, but this is the only ride I can think of that I would say was totally LAME! You can try to disagree with me on this. Yeah, the special effects of them in the tank was cool, but honestly. I don't think I will ride that again.

When he got there I begged to ride Spaceship Earth since it will be down in September when I am there. So we rode that, Test Track and Mission:Space. He did the orange side and I did the wuss side.

After that, we were off to get our drink on! First stop Mexico for a Margarita! They had all different flavors, but we went for the normal basic Lime flavor. It was pretty good and we decided to head next door to Norway to get a snack since we were hungry. I had heard oodles about the school bread, so we got that and a Carlsberg beer and had a seat. This is my husband having a sip of his margarita (he looks kind of funny I think )

Here is a picture of the school bread, which is basically a big puffed up pastry filled with sweet cream, covered in coconut.

This seriously was one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted. Just look how happy I am eating it!

After that, we stopped at China for a Ting-Sao (is that how spell that?) beer. It wasn't very good, I didn't think. Then we were off to Germany. This is what my husband was looking forward to. He loves all things German. The cars, the food, the beer, the music, everything. So we get a couple Franziskaner's (again spelling? who knows?) and a brat with saurkrat. I didn't get a chance to take a picture until my husband was halfway done with it, but here it is...doesn't it look good?

In the middle of eating I hear the clock start to chime and got all excited and ran out to take a picture. I had never seen it go off before! Really cute with the boy and girl ringing the bell.

From there we had a glass of Chianti in Italy, a Bud Light in America, then I think Japan is where we had the kaki gori's. Is that right? I may be getting Japan and China mixed up, but it was SO GOOD. I was skeptical, I mean how good can a snow cone be right? Well, I got the mandarin and it was delicious.

My husband snuck a pic while I was eating it...

Next was a beer in Morroco and it was surprisingly really good! Some sort of wheat beer that I can't remember, but tasty.

So we decide to have champagne in France, but I had to hit the little girls room so my husband goes to get in line. As I am coming out I see everyone pointing across the lake and I look and there is a really bright light coming up over the horizon with a huge plume of smoke coming out behind it. It was the space shuttle launching!! I couldn't believe how bright it was. I ran over to my husband and was yelling look look! I think I embarassed him.

Can you believe how bright it is from like 100 miles away! Crazy.

So by this time we are at the UK and we are hungry. Well, we are so close to Le Cellier and I think aloud "I wonder if we can get food to go from there". So I got a spot in the UK square to watch the Beatles come out and play while my husband who is not much of a fan, went to just ask if we could get some of that tasty cheddar cheese soup to go. Well sure enough a few minutes later he comes back with two cups of soup! It was just as delicious as I remember. I lapped that stuff up, but was still hungry. So we got some fish and chips from that Yorkshire place. I had heard they were good, but someone lied. My husband and I both thought they were the worst fish and chips we had ever had. I mean how do you mess up french fries? Sorry to those of you who like them, but yuck! This is about all we ate of them...

We watched Illuminations which is always great and then we walked to our car (of course at this point in the day I am VERY happy with my decision to let him drive since our car is now close and I am tired!). I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Up next Day 3 with the Epcot Segway tour!

Highs: School bread, Cheddar cheese soup, KTTK tour

Lows: Being late for the tour...but it worked out!

 

[svalencia1]

Great report! Your pictures are making me so hungry. I loved the Keys to the kingdom tour, one of the neatest things I have done there i thought. I'm glad you didn't have to miss any of it.

 

[pjstevens]

Great report so far. Looking forward to the rest of your trip. Hope you enjoyed the Segway tour, we loved it last summer. Those fries looked amazing, something I hadn't heard about before, definately something to try this trip.

 

[The Master]

subscribing...

 

[Avivasmom]

Great report.....enjoying it very much!

 

[Nicole786]

What a coinky-dink! I was there on the 8th, and i'm going back for my real trip in september too!

 

[cinderkelli]

What a coinky-dink! I was there on the 8th, and i'm going back for my real trip in september too!

Haha that is so funny. I count this as not my 'real' trip either. Where are you staying in September and when are you going? We will be there Sept 20-24, staying at Coronado Springs.

 

[LYNSUE]

Another Dis'er who was just there and will return in September. DH and I will be there 9-20 to 9-25. (no free dining for us though, we are DVC members, so no can do).

We will be staying at the Beach Club Villa's. I just love the location so near Epcot and the Studios.

Perhaps we will cross paths during our time there.

LynSue

 

[cinderkelli]

Another Dis'er who was just there and will return in September. DH and I will be there 9-20 to 9-25. (no free dining for us though, we are DVC members, so no can do).

We will be staying at the Beach Club Villa's. I just love the location so near Epcot and the Studios.

Perhaps we will cross paths during our time there.

LynSue

LynSue! I will have to keep an eye out. I have to admit, I did not wear my lime green Mickey Head like I should have. I brought it but totally forgot to wear it! So this time I will have it and will keep a better eye out for DISers!

 

[SnoopyDancer]

So we got some fish and chips from that Yorkshire place. I had heard they were good, but someone lied.

Lovin' your trip report!

 

[LYNSUE]

Regarding the lime green mickey heads......

When I was there in May, I also had the mickey heads with me and did not wear them. How funny is that, we both did the same thing. However, in September, I will display them proudly and keep a watchful eye for others.

If we don't see any other mickey heads, I will have to listen to DH say "it must be a fading cult". But I am willing to put up with that for the sake of meeting a fellow diser.

See you in September (maybe)

LynSue

 

[daisy hughes]

This is great! I hadn't heard about the fries, so that is going on my list of good eats for September!

I am also going to check out the tours you mentioned...sounds like fun to me!

 

[Credit Man]

Enjoying your report. Thanks for posting.

 

[cinderkelli]

Saturday morning we had to be at Epcot by 9:15 to check in for our Segway tour. We got there a little earlier and headed over to get a Fastpass for Soarin' so we could ride it later. This was the one ride I told my husband he HAD to ride. I love Soarin'.

So we head over to do the Segway tour. Now to say my husband is obsessed with technology is an understatement. He is a certifiable tech geek. So he thinks Segways are about the coolest thing ever. So when I heard about this tour I thought 'perfect!' One more thing to lure him to the parks.

So we get our helmets, watch a short informational video, then it is out in to the Innoventions practice area and we all got on our segways. It was mostly learning how to get on and off, turn, go uphill and downhill. Nothing big, but withing about 5 seconds I turned to my husband and said 'we have to have one of these!' They are SO cool. I loved driving it around! I don't know why, but they are just super neat.

After finishing up there, we head over to the world showcase. Our tour guide was really cool and took us in and out of a lot little 'obstacles' in WS. At almost every country she would stop and tell us a little bit about it. So let me go back to the day before and fill you in on a random bit of my husband and my conversation while sipping a beer in Germany...

Me: "Man it is amazing how authentic the architecture here is, I mean it feels like I am IN Germany"
DH: "Really? I think it is a little over the top."
Me: "Well it reminds me of like Rothenberg, this cute little town we saw down in southern Germany"
DH: "Well it doesn't look like Munich"

A little history, Munich is my husbands favorite city in the world. Anyway, so Germany is one of the first places we stopped and our guide proceeds to tell us how it was built. The main part was fashioned after a lovely little town in the heart of Bavaria called ROTHENBERG! Man I am like beaming at my husband so he knows how smart I am. Anyway, we stop in Morroco and are told about how the king of Morroco was involved in building it and how it is the most authentic pavillion there. We also stopped in Italy to take pictures. Here are a couple...

It was really fun and I would highly recommend it.

After that we were STARVING so we decided to go over to the Sunshine Pavillion by Soarin to grab a snack. We had lunch reservations at Sci Fi at MGM so we just wanted to split something. Now, I don't know if I was just really hungry or if it was really that good, but we had the BEST sandwich. Here is a picture (sorry again, ate some first )

It was on really good bread with like turkey, muenster cheese and some chipotle mayo. HIGHLY recommended.

Then we road Soarin'. My husband liked it, like I knew he would right?

After that we headed over to MGM, grabbed fastpasses for my FAVorite ride. Tower of Terror! I love, love, love this ride. It was a little before our lunch ressie, so we just walked around. Now the first two days had been nice weather, but today it was HOT. The line for Great Movie ride said 40 minutes so we said no way and just went ahead to wait at Sci Fi. At least it was cool in there! Also, on the way there we saw all the Star Wars weekend festivities. Man, people are crazy about that stuff! There were lines a million miles long waiting for pictures and autographs. Amazing.

So I had heard a lot of reviews about Sci Fi, and as I am sure y'all know, a lot of them weren't very good. BUT, it just looked like such a cute place so I wanted to try it. I had heard some things NOT to eat, so I just stuck to a burger, fries and shake.

The shake was delish! and the burger and fries were not bad. Not the best I have ever had, but I would go back. The movie clips and little cars you sit in are so cute. Great atmosphere!

After that we went to ride TOT and grabbed a FP for RNRoller Coaster. Then headed back to GMR and the line was much shorter so we hopped on that. It was much better than I remember. Seems like I remember not liking it that much last time. Maybe our driver was better or something. I do love the end though. I get chillbumps seeing all those movie clips.

We then did a little shopping. My cousins all have small children so we wanted to bring them something back. We ended up being right by the parade so we checked that out, even though I usually don't care much about the afternoon parades. After that we went back to RNR. We got in line with our fastpasses and got all the way in to the preshow. We had gotten our super stretch ordered right when the ride broke down. At first they told us to wait, then they announced it was closed and for everyone to get out of line. Now, for all the people who had made it to preshow and beyond, they gave us more fastpasses to come back with later. But, had I not had a fastpass and waited an hour and was almost inside, I would have been SO angry! Oh well. At this point we headed over to the meal we were most excited about...dinner at Hollywood Brown Derbey!

I had heard so many good things, so we ordered the Cobb Salad and both got filets along with a glass of wine. The Cobb salad was quite good, however they only brought out the big plate and no individual salad plates so we felt weird at first eating off the plate in the middle.

Our waiter finally realized this and brought us two plates. Then he disappeared until we got our steaks...

Now, I am a steak lover. I live in Dallas where we have about a jillion really good steakhouses and I feel like somewhat of a connosieur. This steak was not good. It was overcook and bland. The topping had no flavor and the only good part was the potatoes on bottom. For the price we paid for our meal, we could have gone to one of the nicest places in Dallas. Plus we saw our waiter about 3 times the whole meal and were never asked how anything was. It was really a disappointment I have to say. I will not go back and was also very mad about how much it cost for such a blah meal. Oh well! Live and learn right?

At least we got good news when we headed back to RNR and it was open. We got right on and my husband LOVED it. It is so fun. I heard it was closed for a couple days after we left, so I was glad he got to experience it. We went back over to TOT, where there was no wait and rode, then rode again! =) Did I mention I love that ride?

It was getting time for Fantasmic, so we headed that way. It was even better than I remembered (probably cause we had way better seats). This show is so great though. If you haven't seen it, I say it is a not to be missed ride!

So that was the end of our day, but I do have a quick tip. We had parked at Epcot, bussed over to MGM and expected to bus back to Epcot to get our car. Well Epcot closes at 9 and Fantasmic started at 10:30. So there were no busses going to Epcot at 11. So us and a couple other people had to beg some transportation guy to get us a bus. Just an FYI.

Up next..our last day at the park, and will we make it home on time?

Highs: TOT over and over, Segway tour
Lows: The heat and Hollywood Brown Derbey

 

[pjstevens]

We did the segway tour last summer, that was so much fun. My dh also said, we need to get one of these!!! yea right Oh well.... dh and ds are going for the segway tour when we go in August. Loving your report.

 

[Gregory]

Great TR. Looking forward to more.