I FINALLY made it to WDW (for the 1st-time EVER!!!!!) :D

Glad you made it

KentB3 said:

Just wanted to let everyone here know that I am now at WDW, on my very first trip there, and am having the TIME of my LIFE!!!!! :wave: :sohappy: :sohappy: :sohappy:

I arrived Saturday afternoon after spending one night in Savannah, GA on the way. This was also my 1st trip inside Georgia as well as Florida, and Savannah is a beautiful city! Didn't have time to do much in Savannah, except for some sightseeing and dinner at Lady & Sons restaurant. http://www.ladyandsons.com This restaurant is run by Paula Deen from Food Network. Though hard to believe, getting PS for breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table was a piece of cake compared to getting a dinner reservation at Lady & Sons!!!!! There, you have to get in line (that spans the entire block!) outside the restaurant about 4 hours in advance, then come back about 20 minutes before your dinner reservation to get seated.

We arrived at WDW about 3:30pm Saturday (my parents and myself), but my room at Coronado Springs wasn't avaliable until a little after 5pm (running over an hour late). Since we were running late, we went to the Magic Kingdom for a little while, to eat at Pinocchio's Village Haus and watch Spectromagic (which is INCREDIBLE, with all the lights and floats!), we then went back to the hotel room for a good night's rest.

Sunday we has PS at Cinderella's Royal Table at 8:50am. Cinderella was in the lobby greeting guests, who were in line for a meet & greet session and a picture. I had a great time with Cindy, and she pointed out the Christmas tree in the lobby, which she said she helped decorate with Prince Charming and the Fairy Godmother. After that, we went upstairs to the dining hall. The breakfast was absolutely delicious! Inside the dining hall were Belle, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Snow White, and Mary Poppins. Snow White was so adorable, and even posed for 3 pictures (2 of herself and 1 with me)! There were lots of little girls in princess dresses there, and even noticed 3 boys dressed as princes; 2 as Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty and 1 as Prince Charming from Cinderella.

After breakfast we went to Disney-MGM, where ABC Soap Weekend was being held. Disney-MGM was horribly crowded, and the layout is almost like a maze! Unfortunately, all the Fastpasses for autograph/greet sessions with the soap stars were gone by then (sold out in about 20 minutes after the park opened!), but we did get to see an entire interview with Susan Lucci in the park's hub behind the Fantasia hat. She rode in and out of the interview stage in a convertable with Minnie; just a little over an armslength from where we were standing! We then went to MuppetVision 3-D, The Great Movie Ride, and Star Tours before out 5:35pm PS at Sci-Fi Theatre. This is one of the coolest places to eat there, especially with the 1950's movie clips on the movie screen! After dinner, there was a grand finale for ABC soap weekend, with the stars arriving in cars with characters to the stage. Heather Tom (Kelly on One Life to Life, and former Victoria on The Young and the Restless) was absolutely beautiful in person (as she rode by), and rode with Chip. After the grand finale for ABC Soap Weekend, we watched Fantasmic (which was absolutely mind-blowing!), and went to Voyage of the Little Mermaid and The Magic of Disney Animation afterward.

The next morning started with breakfast at 1900 Park Faire at the Grand Floridian. Mary Poppins was in the lobby greeting guests (in her red outfit instead of the white outfit she wore at CRT), but we stopped by her on the way out since we were running late. Inside the dining hall were Alice, the Mad Hatter, Pooh, and Tigger. We had a nice conversation with Alice about going to EPCOT after breakfast, and she was so sweet and so adorable! The Mad Hatter was nearly as wild as he was in the movie, and noticed that I had tea with my breakfast (his favorite beverage!), but after noticing I was driking iced tea he suggested that someday I try hot tea, which was "much better" in his opinion! Tigger even gave my mom a kiss when he showed up!
Pooh was adorable, and Mary Poppins was outstanding, though VERY talkative! She even asked if I could say Supercalafragilisticexpialadocious backwards. I answered I wasn't quite sure and she resposnded, "It's Suoicodalaipxecitsiligarfalacrepus, but isn't that going to far?" I responded with "WAY too far!" :lol:

It's running pretty late now, and I need to hit the sack since I am planning to show up in the Magic Kingdom tomorrow by the time it opens at 9:00am. To make a long story short, Monday we went to EPCOT and saw Spaceship Earth (one of the coolest rides in all of WDW!), Innoventions, all of the Earth's attractions except for Soarin' (which we probably will see Thursday, along with World Showcase), and had lunch at Coral Reef, with a seat by huge aquarium tank! The food there was out of this world, and we had a great waiter named Alejandro. Today we went to Animal Kingdom, where we had breakfast at Donald's Breakfastosarus (Restaurantosarus) and dinner at Rainforest Cafe. I'll get into more details about yesterday and today in a reply to this post, sometime later when I have more time.

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I am so glad you are having a great time!!!! That is awesome!!! On Thursday, make sure you get over to check out the number one music act in all of Disneyworld, Off Kilter!!!!! They are located in a stage built especially for them in the Canada Pavilion ( the only musical act to have a stage made especially for them) The times for the sets are Monday-Thursday at 2:30, 3:30, 5:30, 6:30 & 7:30pm See as many sets as you like, they have a pretty good song catalog and tend not to repeat themselves songwise in the course of a day, as long as all 5 original members of the band are there!!! Have a great time with the Lads In Plaid. Belle

So glad to hear of you wonderful magic filled trip. Have fun and enjoy. You put a huge smile on my face as I was reading this post.

Glad you are having a good time. It is truly a magical place.

Glad you have a nice time in Savannah too!

Tramp said:

The next time someone wants to know if Disney still has the "magic," they need to ask Kent. :wave:

It's always great to read reports from a first-timer.

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I'll second that one!
Way to go Kent

YAY! I pitty anyone who's never been to WDW. Glad you made it. :sohappy:

Congrats to you Kent for finally making it to WDW!

Now...after all that planning and getting information, I hope it's even more magical than anyone has been able to explain. I look forward to the rest of your trip report and pictures as well!

HAVE FUN and come back to us when you're done...you want to get every minute you can while here.

:sohappy:

Glad you're having fun. I was there Saturday night...Ate at the Village Haus and watched Spectro. Haha.

How Sweet! Keep making those MAGICAL MOMENTS...and don't forget to share with your WDWMAGIC ohana!:wave:

Glad you're having a great time Kent! :sohappy:

Have a Dole Whip and a Turkey leg for me! Please?!?! Have a great time.

I just returned home from my trip earlier today, so I'll get into more details about Monday & Tuesday, and tell about the rest of my trip. I already talked about Spaceship Earth and the meals I had made PS for Monday, so I'll get right to the rest. After riding Spaceship Earth, we went to Innoventions. Most of what they had here (in both buildings) appeared more like a trade show than a theme park attraction, so we skipped over half of what they had here. They did have a neat game where a large group of guests build their own spaceship and race it against each others, and I came in 3rd place! :animwink: Also, there were a couple of people that showed guests how paper was made, which I found quite interesting.

Next up was lunch at Coral Reef, which was great, though I was quite disappointed that The Living Seas was closed. Next up was The Land; where we watched Circle of Life, road the Land's ride (the boat ride with the greenhouses in the back). We tried to get on Soarin' after that (and even again on Thursday, our 2nd day at EPCOT), but had a long wait (60+ minutes on standby) and all FastPasses were out for the ride (both this day and Thursday). We then went to ride Journey Into Imagination, and then headed for ImageWorks. The Journey Into Imagination ride was something else, and Figment was especially memorable! However, it did seem watered down since Dreamfinder is no longer on the ride. Also, the current group of ImageWorks attractions/exhibits pales considerably in comparison to the original ImageWorks offerings, but still a lot of fun! It would be great if the would reopen the old ImageWorks upstairs, complete with the Rainbow Corridor!

After JII, we went to ride Universe of Energy. The Jeopardy! parody at the beginning and end of the ride was hilarious! After that, we decided to retire for the evening and heade back to the hotel room to relax and recharge our batteries after a long day of walking around EPCOT's Future World.

Tuesday was our Animal Kingdom day. This day started off with Donald's Breakfastosarus in the park. This was a great breakfast, with good service, goof variety of food on the buffet, and the characters were great! Donald was there of course, joined by Mickey, Goofy, and Pluto. Pluto was the 1st character at our table, followed by Donald, then Goofy, and finally Mickey!

Festival of the Lion King is, without a doubt, the best attraction of any kind in Animal Kingdom, and would tie with Fantasmic! in first place of the shows I attended at WDW! The show is presensted in a "theater in the round" (guests sit in a circle surrounding the main stage), and participate greatly in the action of the show. Kilamanjaro Safaris was really something as well, but taking pics can be a bit tricky due to animal behavior and how fast the vehicles are going by. Right after that, we took the train ride to Rafiki's Planet Watch, where we stopped by Conservation Station. Here, we met Rafiki from The Lion King, Pocahontas, and even Stanley from the Playhouse Disney cartoon (who I am just about sure was a random character there!).

While greeting with Pocahontas, I mentioned that in the Circle of Life film at EPCOT's The Land, it was mentioned that more and more people are learning the lessons presented in her stage show (Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends); such as protecting wildlife, working to preserve forests, and caring more for the environment. Her eyes lit up and widened, and she said "I know, that's WONDERFUL!" with a huge smile!

Dinner was at Rainforest Cafe by the Animal Kingdom entrance. This is one of the coolest restaurants in all of WDW, with the entire restaurant designed as a tropical rainforest! The food was great too. After dinner, we went to see It's Tough to Be a Bug (a really cute show, IMHO), and then headed to DinoLand USA. DinoLand was a nice standout from the rest of the Animal Kingdom theme park, designed much like a boardwalk amusement park or a county pair, complete with Midway-type games seen at such places. Primeval Whirl was a fun ride, as were TriceroTop Spin and Dinosaur, though the Dinosaur ride itself was a bit on the jerky side for me.

Wednesday was out first full Magic Kingdom day. We had been to the MK briefly Saturday night and Sunday morning, but this was out first full day in this park. Several characters were doing greets in Town Square that morning, such as Minnie, Pluto, Chip and Dale, but the lines were very long. However, I REALLY lucked up on one that morning! Outside the Opera House (where the Town Square Exposition Hall is located), Peter Pan came right out in front of me, turned to me, and said "Hello there!" :wave: With the exception of character meals (where the characters normally come to your table), I had to wait in line to greet characters, so this was amazing! We chatted for a minute or 2, and I remember asking him how Tinker Bell was doing, he said she was doing great, and that "she and Wendy were watching over the Lost Boys" then. He the proceeded to sign my autograph book, and posed for a picture.

After looking through shops on Main Street, we then headed for Fantasyland, where we rode the Carousel, Peter Pan's Flight, Snow White's Adventures, and watched Mickey's Philharmagic-- the latter of which was amazing, especially when seen in 3-D! Next was Liberty Square (which I really loved, so quaint and charming!) where we went to see The Hall of Presidents. The animatronic presidents were so lifelike it was almost unreal! I did notice that the current Hall of Presidents show seemed to focus on the fact that once not ALL American's had full rights (such as blacks, Native Americans, and to a certain extent, women) that everyone else had, with Abraham Lincoln adressing this issue that everyone should have a share in these rights in part of his speech.

At 1:15pm, we headed back to Main Street, for a Lunch PS at Tony's Town Square restaurant. Here, out waiter took one of my autograph books back to get "paw print" autographs from Lady & the Tramp! After Lunch, we spotted Pinocchio and Geppetto out in front of Tony's. Pinocchio was simply adorable, and Geppetto even picked up an umbrella I was carrying with me, swinging it like a baseball bat. My Dad asked Geppetto "looks like your a baseball fan!", to which he nodded very enthusiastically.

After lunch, we headed for Mickey's Toontown Fair, where we stopped by Mad Tea Party (one of my personal favorites in the MK), then arrived at Toontown Fair, where we rode Goofy's Barnstormer, visited Mickey and Minnie's Houses, and then headed for the Judge's Tent, where all 3 of us met Mickey. (again!)

Then, around 2:45pm, we headed back to Main Street to watch the Share a Dream Come True Parade. Shortly before the parade, Baloo and King Louie were doing greets in front of City Hall, where I picked up a pic and a couple of autographs for my book. The parade started shortly after 3pm that day. This parade was a lot of fun to watch and so magical in the Disney tradition. Peter Pan reminded me earlier to keep an eye out for him in the SADCT parade, and it turned out the VERY SAME Peter was in this parade, who pointed me out and waved at us! :wave:

Next up was back to Frontierland, for the Country Bears Christmas Jamboree, which was HILARIOUS!, especially Big Al and his really bad singing and guitar picking! :lol: After that, we tried our hand at the Frontierland Shootin' Arcade, and then to Adventureland, where we rode Pirates of the Carribean, and then Magic Carpets of Aladdin. POTC simply was awesome; one of the best rides/attractions in the MK and all of WDW for that matter, with an ever-catchy tune that's nearly impossible to get out of your head, "Yo Ho Yo Ho, a pirate's life for me!" :animwink:

Finally, it was time for the fireworks above the castle. Turns out we really lucked out that night, and were treated to a sneak preview of the Holiday Wishes fireworks show, which was great, and even had Tinker Bell flying by in a red and green lighted outfit! :xmas:

After the fireworks was a late dinner a Chef Mickey's. Donald was greeting guests by the buffet; while Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Chip and Dale were stopping by the guests tables in the dining hall. The character interaction at Chef Mickey's was the best ANYWHERE at WDW, not just character meals, but all of WDW! All the characters stopped by our table more that once; after finishing up all the tables they started all over again. Minnie showed up four times at our table, and even gave me a kiss the first time she stopped by! Dale even gave me a BIG bear hug his first time at our table, like he was REALLY glad to see me or something! :lol:

The food as Chef Mickey's was outstanding, and the parmesian mashed potatoes were out of this world! In fact, I'd rather have a serving the parmesian mashed potatoes than some of the things offered for dessert at Chef Mickey's, or just about any restaurant at WDW! :animwink:

I'll post my report for my remaining 2 days in my next reply to this thread.

Great to hear how much a first timer enjoyed the parks.

By the way, the spaceship building game is in the Mission Space Post show.

It was interesting that you enjoyed the Dinoland USA area of Animal Kingdom as so many people here (myself included) really don't like that area of the park and mark it down as "cheap".

As for Stanley at Planet Watch, I've not seen much of his TV show but believe that a lot of it revolves around animals so he's not quite so random at that location.

I'm with you on Lion King show - great fun.

Thanks for the update, Kent!! It's so nice to hear your first WDW trip was jammed packed with awesome memories!! You've made my day!! :sohappy:

Paula Dean's and Disney! Wow!
Go have more fun and tell us all about it when you get home!

Kent,
I am very happy you finally made it there! Your trip report was great. Your enthusiasm makes me feel like I was there!
I agree with you on Chef Mickey's, and the Festival of the Lion King. They are the best!:wave:

KentB3 said:

I The Journey Into Imagination ride was something else, and Figment was especially memorable! However, it did seem watered down since Dreamfinder is no longer on the ride. Also, the current group of ImageWorks attractions/exhibits pales considerably in comparison to the original ImageWorks offerings, but still a lot of fun! It would be great if the would reopen the old ImageWorks upstairs, complete with the Rainbow Corridor!

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Interesting comment from a first timer. How are you basing your comparison?

hakunamatata said:

Interesting comment from a first timer. How are you basing your comparison?

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About Dreamfinder and Figment, I have read a lot about the old JII in books, on the Internet, and seen videos of this before, including a DVD I have of the grand opening special of EPCOT from 1982.

hakunamatata said:

Interesting comment from a first timer. How are you basing your comparison?

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About Dreamfinder and Figment, I have read a lot about the old JII in books, on the Internet, and seen videos of this before, including a DVD I have of the grand opening special of EPCOT from 1982.

hakunamatata said:

Interesting comment from a first timer. How are you basing your comparison?

Click to expand...

About Dreamfinder and Figment, I have read a lot about the old JII in books, on the Internet, and seen videos of this before, including a DVD I have of the grand opening special of EPCOT from 1982.