Who Says You Can't Have Fun Going Solo??? TR Completed

[KimAshton]

Cannot wait to read more.

 

[bushdianee]

I've thought about a solo trip and almost went on one last year until my DSis decided to go with me. Did you have times where you felt lonely?

 

[Davidsmommy]

Wonderful report!!!

MGM is my favorite park too.

 

[Dolce27]

Bee: Thanks so much for the continued support!

This is my first trip report to write and I'm glad that you all are enjoying it.

bushdianee: For the most part, I was not lonely during my trip.There were a few moments that I wished I'd had someone to share the moment with. One thing about traveling solo - a lot of people remember you and will say hi and chat when they see you around the parks. I kept running into this one couple everywhere I went.

I will try try to post Day 3 tonight but I will not be home until late.

 

[kristinanderic]

You make me want to go on a Solo trip! It would be so cool to be able to do what I want to do all day.

Although..I'd also like to find someone with the same passion for disney as me...that would be neat also. I'm still working on my husband...its hard to convert a non-disney person into a disney fanatic!

I took him for his first time in 2004 and we just returned from a January 2007 trip. I got him into pin collecting so hopefully he will have a draw to go back and get some more pins. He he.

When you find the guy your gonna marry...make sure he likes disney!!

 

[Dolce27]

When you find the guy your gonna marry...make sure he likes disney!!

As much time as I spend lurking on the Disney Weddings Forum rolleyes1 ) he, whoever he is, better like Disney. I hope for a Disney Wedding at some point in my future.

 

[Bee]

As much time as I spend lurking on the Disney Weddings Forum rolleyes1 ) he, whoever he is, better like Disney. I hope for a Disney Wedding at some point in my future.

I am sure your sister will be soooo excited!

Sorry, I was just recalling you saying how your sister "loves" Disney. NOT!

 

[zdad]

On thing about my father’s sudden death that impacted me was this: My father was only fifty-seven – which is still pretty young. He’d taken early retirement (thank goodness) and had been retired for almost two years at the time of his death. It seemed that he was waiting for retirement before he really began ‘living’ his life. Once he retired he began learning Spanish, bought a bass guitar to teach himself to play (shocked me – I couldn’t picture my dad with any type of electrical instrument before that!), things such as that. He only had 1 ½ years to enjoy those things that he’d put off until ‘retirement’.

Wow....I'm in shock right now. I'm 47 and just had the "What I'm going to do when I retire at 55" talk last night with my wife of 25 years. Eerie that I read this today. Such perspective, so so close to home. I'm really numb right now. Makes our adults only trip to WL this coming April sit in a whole new light.

Peace to you, your family and your dad. Glad to see you enjoying every minute !!

Zdad

 

[Polyfor30th]

Thanks for sharing your vacation--I am really enjoying your report
Looking forward to your next installment!

 

[newholidayx2]

thanks for your trip report - anxiously awaiting more
did you have the chance to see Mulch Sweat and Shears at MGM?

 

[ARS123]

I love your insight into things. When I was your age (and unmarried), I would have never had the nerve to travel to Disney alone. After reading your report, I really wish I would have. You make it seem like the most ordinary and normal thing imaginable. Thaks for posting this report and I'm looking forward to reading more.




_____

 

[Dolce27]

thanks for your trip report - anxiously awaiting more
did you have the chance to see Mulch Sweat and Shears at MGM?

Sort of - but not really. I know that doesn't make much sense right now.

 

[Dolce27]

I am sure your sister will be soooo excited!

Sorry, I was just recalling you saying how your sister "loves" Disney. NOT!

Since her wedding is back on for later this year and the subject of weddings is brought up a lot; I've kind of mentioned to her that when I get married I would like to have the wedding at Disney. She gets a look of disgust on her face. She honestly cannot believe that someone actually likes Disney since she doesn't. But she did say that she will attend and be in the wedding if that is my location. ... I think she hopes that I'm not serious.

 

[Dolce27]

Wow....I'm in shock right now. I'm 47 and just had the "What I'm going to do when I retire at 55" talk last night with my wife of 25 years. Eerie that I read this today. Such perspective, so so close to home. I'm really numb right now. Makes our adults only trip to WL this coming April sit in a whole new light.

Peace to you, your family and your dad. Glad to see you enjoying every minute !!

Zdad

Thank you.

I hope that you and your wife have a wonderful trip this April.

 

[Dolce27]

Tuesday September 12, 2006

My wake-up call was set of 5:35 but the exhaustion was beginning to catch up to me as I couldn’t make myself get up until 5:45. I quickly showered and dressed and headed out. Upon walking out of the POFQ lobby I see the EPCOT bus pulling up. Worried that I won’t make it, I begin to run. Just as I near the back of the bus on its right side, the driver begins to take off. Darn – he didn’t see me. Just then he stopped. Yea! I hop on the bus with a smile and a thank-you and I’m on my way to EPCOT.

It was EMH morning and I arrived thirty minutes early so I had plenty of time to study the turnstiles for this park as I waited... not that there was anything very interesting about them. It just wasn't something I normally look at upon arriving at a Disney theme park.

Once we were allowed in I headed straight towards Soarin’ after the rope drop. I liked it a lot – but I didn’t love the attraction (at least not the first time around. I probably had too high of an expectation). Flying through the orange grove section was my favorite part of it but I wanted to feel as if I were flying faster.

I ate a quick breakfast at the Fountain View Bakery. My breakfast consisted of Cinnamon Pecan Croissant that was quite yummy. rolleyes I then went on a quick trip in Spaceship Earth and afterward found out at Guest Relations that I needed to meet for the Dolphin in Depth Tour at 9:30 instead of 9:00 like I previously thought.

With thirty more minutes to kill, I next went over to Mission: Space. I was a bit nervous about this ride. Obviously, I knew about the deaths and I’d read about a lot of people feeling sick for the rest of the day after getting off. The Dolphin in Depth Tour was soon and I became concerned that I would become sick from the ride and be unable to do the tour. Finally I decided that I was going to make a go for it. I bravely walked up to the CM’s handing out the orange or green boarding pass: Orange please.

If I was going to ride it, I wanted to experience it all – not a tamed down version of it. There wasn’t a line and I only had to wait to get into the pre-show. I was assigned as Engineer and I climbed into my seat. The count down began for take-off and we launched. It was so great! This makes up for being bored on the Tower of Terror and sort of bored on Rock n’ Rollercoaster the day before. I pushed the button for the landing wings a little too soon. Oops! I’m a bad Engineer. We finally, after a rather bumpy landing, landed on Mars and I rush off to find my way back to Earth so that I can meet some dolphins. I was fine, no sign of dizziness at all.

I had to meet by Guest Relations outside of the park gates. I walked out to find other’s already waiting and shortly after a woman showed up to take us backstage. We were stopped just inside of the gates into backstage and were asked questions such as: ‘Do you know what a dolphin looks like?’ ‘Have you ever touched a dolphin?’ ‘What’s your t-shirt size?’

We were also asked if we had ever been backstage at a Disney park – only myself and one other guy had ever been. She explained about how out ‘onstage’ is Disney magic but back ‘offstage’ it is reality. We were then led over to the Living Seas Pavilion and were taken to the top of the tank and into a room where people were preparing something. There was a pool in the room that was divided into two sections by a wall. There were four dolphins in the pool, two on one side of the wall divider and two on the other. One dolphin – I don’t know which one – seemed to enjoy the new faces and began showing off for us.

It was then explained to us (by the use of a plush dolphin) the anatomy of a dolphin and then we were taught about the different foods (fish) that dolphins eat to provide them with carbs, protein, and water. Dolphins may live in salt water but they cannot drink the salt water. They get their water intake from eating squid.

We were then led through the room out onto the top of the tank. A CM diver was getting into the tank when we walked past and we were led to a set of chairs set up on the walkways around the top of the tank. There was a demo of how the dolphins are trained and I was the lucky person that got to stand up and pretend to be a dolphin. All right – I did volunteer because no one else would. It consisted of me listening for a sound and then being tapped so that I would reach up and touch something. I would then be rewarded with Monopoly money. Every time the thing that I had to touch was raised higher and higher until the point that I was going to have to jump up to reach it. By the time it got to that point, I didn’t jump. I didn’t feel like jumping. Give me real money and I’ll jump but those Monopoly twenties couldn’t be used in the park.

All right – I jumped. Aren’t I a great demonstrator? Are you sure you can’t exchange that Monopoly for something else? I'm not picky, I will take Disney Dollars. I guess they were out of Disney Dollars that day.

We then went back into the room with the holding pools where two trainers were working with two of the dolphins using sounds and pictures. The other two dolphins were crammed on the other side of the wall, peering through a gate (or something such as that), in the wall trying to watch.

Then we were taken to a classroom where we learned about Conversation and why it’s a bad idea to interact with wild dolphins. Finally, we were led to the locker rooms were there were bags with each of our names on it containing wet suits in our size and shoes.

Then it was back up to the top of the tank where we ran into a small problem. The day before they had shifted around sea shells in the main tank and it caused the water to rise six to ten inches higher than what the water level was in the holding tank for the dolphins. Due to this, the water pressure would not allow them to open the door releasing the dolphins into the main tank.

One of the trainers, Dave, came over and began chatting with us while they worked to fix the water level. He had interesting stories about how the dolphins love to play fetch with the fish in the main tank – accidentally killing the fish. They finally built some sort of fence in the tank that allows the fish to swim through and escape and prevent the dolphins from going any further.

Finally, they were able to adjust the water level and the gate opened up allowing two of the dolphins into the main tank. We each had our picture taken with Rainier (I don’t know how they spell his name)

I believe that the other dolphin that was released into the tank was Kalabar? (I can’t quite recall his name but I know that it wasn’t Calvin that was let in) This dolphin didn’t want to corporate for any reason. They will tell you at the beginning of the tour that the dolphin interaction is optional on the dolphin’s part. None of them (the trainers) are going to make a 500 lbs dolphin do something that he doesn’t want to do. (All the dolphins at Disney are male.) We were split into two groups of four – there are a total of eight people that can do this tour at a time. My group was to work with Rainier and we were shown commands to do prompting a reaction out of him. It was fun – and funny.

 

[Dolce27]

The other group couldn’t get their dolphin to stick around because the dolphin apparently had other plans – such as taunting the trainer. He would swim over as if here were going to corporate and interact with the people but then, at the last possible minute, he would veer off and swim back to the other side of the tank. He kept doing this to the trainer over and over. Finally they had to bring the other group over to join with our group. Rainier was very well behaved; then again he’s an older dolphin – 27 years old. I believe they said that dolphins can live up to their 40's.

So, we didn’t spend as much time with the dolphins as you normally would on this tour because of the water pressure issue and a misbehaving dolphin – but it was still worth it. I'm very glad that I did this tour.

We went back into the locker rooms and changed. We each received our photos taken with Rainier and a t-shirt and were then led back outside of the park by Guest Relations. I re-entered the park and made my way back over to The Living Seas Pavilion from onstage – attempting to catch Turtle Talk. I took one look at that line and decided no. Every single person at EPCOT that day was in that line.

My stomach had begun rumbling as it was 1:30 and I wanted lunch so I headed towards the World Showcase but first made a stop at Character Connection.

Yea, there are photo pass guys there so I hopped in line to get my picture taken with the big cheese himself –Mr. Mickey Mouse. It was my first photo with him since I was two years old. Mickey gave me a kiss on the cheek as I was leaving. Aww… I then skipped a couple of characters (Sorry Minnie, sorry Goofy) and walked over to – you guessed it – Chip and Dale. Dale was goofing off with the queue ropes as there wasn’t anyone in line for their pictures until I walked up. Dale managed to get himself stuck inside the ropes and had to be rescued before I could have my picture with them. I walked up to Dale and told him that he was my favorite and he gave me a big hug. Chip held out his arms for me and I gave him a big hug, telling him that he was my second favorite. Dale was highly amused by this and proceeded to laugh, point, and taunt Chip over this. Dale was in an extremely good mood and couldn’t stop bouncing around during the picture and he gave me a kiss on my hand as I left.

Onward to the World Showcase. I started towards Mexico, which is backwards for me. I always start with Canada. But, thanks to the Restaurant boards, I had to try the school bread in Norway. At Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe I bought salmon on buttered bread (which I ate ½ of) a cup of cheese soup (oh-my-gosh! So yummy!) and the School bread.

I. Am. In. Love.

I didn’t know what to think about it at first. It was huge – massive! The bread was very sweet – it reminded me of a cinnamon roll but without the cinnamon. It had vanilla custard spread in the middle and was covered in coconut. It was so yummy. I ate ¾ of it – I couldn’t stop eating even though by that point my stomach was beyond full. This is now a must to eat every time I go to Disney World. And I just found the recipe online so I will now attempt to make it at home. Woo-hoo!

After, I needed to walk it all off so I walked around the Norway Pavilion. I didn’t ride Malestrom but spent time exploring the gift shop instead. Man, those trolls are expensive!

Moving onto China, I spent time in the gift shops there also. The year before I had been in Shanghai China on business and we stayed at the Ritz Carleton. The women that worked there wore a uniform that consisted of the traditional button up silk dress but it stopped at mid-thigh. They wore a type of pants under. I looked for that while in China (the country) but I could only find the shirts or a full dress – nothing that stopped at mid-thigh. I finally spotted what I wanted at the China Pavilion in EPCOT – but very pricy and I was reluctant to spend my money on it.

So I moved on, exploring the crystal figurines in the Germany gift shop. Whoa- wait a minute! How much did that crystal Cinderella castle cost again? I could have sworn that price tag said $35,000.... All right... moving on now.

At the Italy pavilion I came out a gift shop and ran into Geppetto standing by himself. He was dancing to some music being played and looked rather lonely so I had my picture taken with him.

Funnel cakes in the American Pavilion – yummmm… It’s been forever since I last had one but the school bread refused to allow the funnel cake any sort of access in my stomach so the funnel cake was a no-go. I looked for a cute American Mickey Mouse – didn’t see one. I’ve never seen The American Adventure. (Gasp! Shock! … I know, I’m a horrible American) There wasn’t a showing while I was there so I still wasn’t seeing it.

In Morocco I searched for the place that they do henna tattoos to no avail. I wouldn’t dream of getting a real tattoo but two of my co-workers had returned from a business trip in Dubai with henna tattoos and I had liked it – especially since it wasn’t permanent. I wanted something to circle my ankle but I was out of luck that day. I did spend some time looking around the pavilion. I’d never spent anytime in the Morocco Pavilion before and the atmosphere was rather nice.

I took a quick tour of the French pastries in the French Pavilion. Can those cream puffs be any higher? How in the world do you eat that?

I went over to the UK Pavilion and tried to enter the toy store from the back and had a run in with Marry Poppins. I think she was trying to escape.

I spent some time in the UK pavilion trying to find something for my brother-in-law, Richard. He claims to hate Walt Disney World as much as my sister but I don’t know if that is true or not. Sometimes it’s just easier to agree with my sister than disagree with her. I met Richard’s parents when I was in London last year visiting my sister and Richard and they love Disney World.

Looking for a gift, I couldn’t find anything that I thought he would want – I wanted to find something Disney with a British twist. I just saw a lot of British.

I went and looked around the Canadian Pavilion as I didn’t realize the Canadian Pavilion had very much to it until this trip. I had an ADR at Le Cellier later that evening and I needed to know where the restaurant was so I wouldn’t be late.

 

[Dolce27]

I walked back to Future World and went to grab a fast pass to Soarin’ but decided not to get it as the stand-by time said ten minutes; but it was more like twenty minutes. The wait wasn’t too bad and I think that was the longest line I waited in all week. I was in the third bay this time and I enjoyed this flight more than my first flight. Why, I do believe that Soarin’ is growing on me a bit.

I walked over to Journey into the Imagination. It was cute but I wasn’t too impressed. This was the first time I’d been on it since I was fifteen as it was closed for rehab while I was there in 2002. I think the version of it that I rode when I was fifteen was the one everyone loved – but I only vaguely remember it. Of course, all of the exhibits at the end were packed.

Funny, hardly anyone was on the actual ride.

So, I skipped the exhibits and made my way over to Innovations. I went over to do the quick Segway intro thing they do there. While waiting in line I noticed the CM kept staring at me. He finally walked over and asked my age telling me that you must be at least eighteen years old to do this. Ummm… I’m twenty-seven – do you need my driver’s license? (Quick vent: I’m so tired of people thinking that I’m so much younger than my age – I don’t think I look that young. In fact, I’m beginning to get wrinkles. It’s obvious to me that my thirtieth birthday is quickly approaching. :Vent over. Sorry, pet peeve. ) Fortunately, the CM took my word about my age and left me alone.

All they do for this is bring you into a room and explain what a Segway is and how it works. They had the new models there for the short demo. The actual Segway Tour that you pay for was still using the old Segway models at that time but there were plans to change them out with the new ones.

After the brief introduction to Segways we were allowed to go and get on a Segway and were briefly shown how to move the Segway forward, backward and to turn. It’s a very brief thing but if you can’t do the Segway tour it’s a good thing to do if you want an idea of what a Segway is.

After Innovations I made my way back to the Canadian Pavilion to Le Cellier. I was looking forward to this dinner as I’d read so much about this restaurant. I had a fabulous server. I had read a lot about bad service at this restaurant but I didn’t find that to be true for me.

I had the famous cheese soup to start (I have to admit, I thought the Norwegian cheese soup I had earlier that day was a bit better) and I loved the pretzel bread – then again: I’m a bread addict. I had the mushroom filet mignon; which I ate ½ of. It was very good and I’m not a big beef eater. For my dessert I had the crème brulee sampler. This was my first time to try crème brulee ever. It was good. I found that I preferred the maple crème brulee over the vanilla crème brulee – but both were excellent.

After this meal I was stuffed to the point that I felt I was going to be sick. The only thing I could think of to do is walk it off so I began power walking laps around the lagoon. I made two laps and not only did I still feel sick, I was now slightly dizzy from walking so fast in a large circle.

Not good.

I made my way over to the Italian Pavilion and found a bench to sit on. At that point I never wanted to eat again – Ever. I had a breakfast ADR at Rainforest Café the next morning. Yeah, I called Disney Dining while sitting there and canceled that.

I finally began to feel better and went to look at the gift shop in the Germany pavilion again. I loved their crystal figurines. I took a good look at the Cinderella castle. It was priced at $37,500.00 – all hand crafted crystal by Arribas Bros. Later that week I was at the Arribas Bros. store at Downtown Disney and I asked if they sold any of the castles – they had one on display in that store also. I was told that they usually sell three of them a year. Wow. It’s a beautiful castle but I don’t think I could spend that kind of money for that.

It was getting close to time for Illuminations and here’s another shocker: I’ve never seen Illuminations before.

So, this was to be another first for me. I decided to pick a spot on the Italy Isola to view it from. I found a spot up at the fence. No one could sit in front of me so that was good. The gondolas’ were all around and they might block some of my view but I wasn’t too worried. The night was beautiful – again no rain. It was cool with a great breeze and I enjoyed sitting there listening to the pre-show music playing on the speakers .Where I sat I must have been pretty close to a speaker.

Illuminations began and why-oh-why had I never taken the time out for it before? It was awesome! I already knew the music from listening to it on the Internet but the show itself was just amazing to watch. Afterward, I slowly made my way around the lagoon in no rush. In the crowd I accidentally cut in front of a woman driving an ECV causing her to have to do a quick stop. Ooops! I was distracted by the lit up golf ball up ahead.

Seriously, I was looking at Spaceship Earth trying to decide if I wanted a night picture of it and wasn’t paying attention of where I was going. Shame on me, I know. I quickly apologized to the woman and took off incase she wanted to yell at me – she looked pretty irked. But I did take a picture:

Back at the resort I wasn’t ready for bed so I went back to walk up and down by the river. I told you: I love to walk.

One thing that I decided to do on this trip was to audition for a position as an improve actor. Now, I am not an actor by any means but I’ve always loved to watch the Steetmosphere over at MGM and secretly hoped that I could get a fun job such as that. (I do realize that there is a lot of hard work involved in what they do).

So, on the Disney website I saw that they were having one audition in the month of September and it was Friday, September 15 – while I was there! So, I went and bought a book on comedic monologues; none of which I found to be too funny but I didn’t have much time to find and memorize a monologue before I left for Disney.

I memorized three monologues before I left and performed them in front of a friend and let her select the one I would perform for my audition. This would be my very first audition and I had no idea what to expect. I tried researching on the boards but I couldn’t find anything.

So, as I walked up and down the river I’d stop at each end and run through my monologue. I’d stop practicing if the water taxi from Downtown Disney was going by or if others were too close. I’m certain that anyone who saw me thought that I was insane – staring out at the water obviously having a conversation with myself. Oh well.

I finally felt tired enough to go to bed and headed towards my room. I don’t know what time it was – probably around midnight.

Day 4 next...

 

[newholidayx2]

so you felt completely safe walking around the parks and the resort at night?

 

[stitchlover]

subbing...love the report. You remind me so much of my "little" cousin (31 years old). She would do this type trip in a heartbeat and never give another thought to doing it alone. Can't wait for the next segment.

 

[Dolce27]

so you felt completely safe walking around the parks and the resort at night?

Yeah, I didn't have a problem with either. There were too many people at the parks for me to worry. I recall feeling a little apprehensive the first night I walked a long the river alone - but that feeling didn't last long.