Trip Report 12 days of Live Trip Reporting

Departing tomorrow (June 28) from home in Manchester, Maryland for an extended 12 day visit to the World. Originally a 6 day visit, we added almost a full second week so DD could participate in the Disney Soccer Academy from July 7-10.

We will be leaving home around noon tomorrow and will drive straight through (about 1000 miles) with the plan being arrival around 7am or so at our first of 3 resorts, Grand Floridian (2 nights). If you want to check out our plans, we have a Pre-Trip Report (http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/a-6-day-no-make-that-12-day-4th-of-july-pre-trip.884929/) that you can check out if you want to know more about our plans.

I try to post daily when we are at Disney and include pictures as much as possible, so sit back, grab some popcorn, and join us each each night for the next couple weeks at the World!

 

[brifraz]

Love that Epcot finale. Sorry it didn't go as planned. Enjoy the Frozen show tomorrow. Can't wait to hear about it

Will post this afternoon with pictures from last night. When there are literally hundreds of fireworks going off all around you, it is hard to notice that one barge didn't fire!! We would never have known that it didn't go off without the burn-off. Actually gave us a little second finale, so it was a GOOD thing! Details on yesterday afternoon and pictures of Illuminations and tag after our Frozen morning (and before our Frozen evening).

 

[brifraz]

So, yesterday afternoon we were back in Epcot. Arrived right at 11am and promptly made our way to World Showcase where we enjoyed the two boat rides first thing - El Rio de Tiempo and Maelstrom. After that, we slowly worked our way around the countries with some shopping and exploring. Picked up some lunch for DD in USA and for DW in France and then found a nice spot to eat at Rose and Crown where we, of course, met some very nice folks and chatted and ate and drank for quite a while. DD and I left for a bit to save Japan from Dr. Doofenshmirtz and we really enjoyed the way that they incorporated the Perry adventure into the old Kim Possible one.

Once we had significantly mellowed out, we decided to head toward Future World. On the way, we noticed some friends who wanted a little dance party to break out.


We then worked our way toward the Land for FP+ for Living with the Land and our early dinner at Garden Grill. We did take note along the way that Imagination had a (wait for it) 25 minute wait! This is what July 4th does!! Dinner was fine (nothing special, but decent food) and we met with characters as usual. DD enjoyed checking out every part of Living with the Land as we passed over it.


After dinner, we watched Circle of Life film (more to just have some rest in AC before....) and then headed to the FP+ area for Illuminations. Yes, it was only 7:30pm, but glad we did as there were only 3 families in line when we arrived and within about 30 minutes the line weaved completely around the building! The crowd ended up just as crazy as at MK on July 3. After waiting and sitting and then standing and waiting, the show was on. Once again, I snapped over 100 shots, but I'm just going to share a couple (again, as yet unedited so sorry about the bush on the side and the slightly not straight camera angle!).

From Illuminations:


From the 4th Celebration:


After the show ended, the show at DHS was just beginning, so we watched that as well - just over Morocco. And, much to our surprise, about 15 minutes later one of the barges of fireworks for the 4th tag did a burn-off of another 50 or so shells. Pretty cool little bonus tag. Hard to believe there should have been 50 more things going off during the actual show!

This morning was all about the Frozen at DHS and I will share soon! (also on another thread with lots of pics from this morning)

 

[brifraz]

Branching off to another thread for today's report on the Frozen stuff.

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/frozen-at-dhs-opening-day.886525/

But here I am getting ready for it...(bracing for it??)

 

[brifraz]

@PUSH little hungry today?

 

[PUSH]

@PUSH little hungry today?

It was hot, and I thought he was a snow cone...

 

[brifraz]

Here is the report for the day. Frozen. All day pretty much. One quick trip to Toy Story Midway Mania this morning and a return to the room for lunch, naps, and swimming. So, we were in Studios from 8am-11:30am, then back from 5:45pm-11pm.

I have posted reports from today in the Frozen thread (link is above), but wanted to share them here!

We were in DHS this morning for the opening of the Frozen activities. Here are some pictures from the activities and events going on around the park before noon. I apologize for the heads and other things in the shots - I don't have the best editing capabilities here in my room at OKW and for the parade I was pretty much standing in the camera well with the CMs taping the show (thus tripods aplenty in my shots).

There was a welcome ceremony at park opening (both 8am for EMH and 9am for regular) with a host and Olaf.


Oaken's Trading Post had two separate weaves - one for the shop and one for the play area (ice rink and snow pile). By 8:30am, the one for the shop appeared to have a good 30 minute wait (if not more).


There were quite a few Frozen styled treats available for purchase.
(our Olaf made a cameo here)

And it appears that Oaken's family is trapped inside the CM only door behind one of the registers!


There were a number of 'Aurasma' photo spots which feature an app that will add in characters to your still shots, a snack bar area, and the ice rink and snow play area.

 

[brifraz]

We purchased the 'premium' package to guarantee seats for everything (and desserts and drinks for later), so all the pre-parade, parade, and stage 'show' shots are from there. If you haven't watched the video yet, there is the procession and then a brief welcome of Anna and Elsa (all with Olaf commentary), followed by a short sing along to part of Let It Go. Pictures below are in sequence.
Pre-show



If you use #olafsummervacation, they are sharing those pictures pre-processional and also pre-fireworks tonight. That's DD on the right with the Trolls (from an Aurasma shot).

Procession



(I think this float will eventually have Olaf on it)






And all this before lunch time! The rest will be up soon. Just lots more Frozen...

 

[brifraz]

And here's the nighttime events from the Frozen-fiesta. Sorry if you already read this in the other thread!!! Next post will be new material, promise!

The sing-along is a pretty basic stage set-up, with two large screens on either side and a movie screen behind the stage. Minimal scenery on the sides. The show mainly stars the 'Arrendelle historians' who look pretty similar to a couple of folks who hosted a Welcome Home Wednesday a couple years ago. They basically do plot exposition with a few puns to lead to the next song which is just shown from the movie.







From what we were told by the Premium door CM, all the shows today were totally full (can't really say sold out since they are free). The door CM at the dessert party said that the Premium tickets are selling VERY fast and that many dates are already sold out. Not sure of the accuracy of that...

The dessert party was set-up in Playhouse Disney due to the rain and I would encourage you to go on an evening when there is rain around, because this was MUCH better than being outside. Tables, multiple food and drink stations, Frozen dance music, and air conditioning.





At 9:30, the guests who were still at the dessert party were taken by CM to the fireworks area. The fireworks show starts with Anna, then some fireworks, then Kristoff joins, then some fireworks, then Elsa, and some more fireworks. Obviously, the weather tonight did not cooperate at all, with a low ceiling, little wind, and high humidity. But, through the smoke, it looked to be a decent show.

 

[brifraz]

Here are a couple of fun shots from yesterday's Frozen activity. Our Olaf (#olafsummervacation) found himself not just checking out the treats and taking a look at PUSH from the inside...he also found himself at the wrong end of a Toy Story Midway Mania gun and getting a price check at Wandering Oaken's.



And here are the girls having a good time dancing to the Frozen club mixes during the dessert party.


This morning, we slept in a bit and had some breakfast in the room, followed by a trip to Downtown Disney. We did a bit of shopping, then about an hour at DisneyQuest, and then over to Raglan Road for lunch. Took our time eating lunch (and enjoying a Kilkenny) and listening to the great music and watching the dancing. After lunch, the boats were not running due to storms in the area so we walked back to the bus stop and got there just before the skies began to open up. It has been a good half hour of on-and-off downpours and we are just relaxing in the room before heading over to Epcot tonight.

 

[coachwnh]

Hope the night was rain free in Epcot

 

[brifraz]

Hope the night was rain free in Epcot

We finally headed over around 4:30pm and it was still raining pretty hard, but by the time we got out of the car in the parking lot, it had lightened up quite a bit and was done within an hour or so.

 

[brifraz]

Once we were all finished napping and starting the packing process (we move to Saratoga Springs tomorrow and DD starts the Disney Soccer Academy) it was time to head to Epcot. I'm afraid that I didn't even take the good camera out today because of all the rain and my desire to not have to take a backpack with layers of plastic bags to keep everything dry and happy. So, this will simply be (in deference to Zork) a text adventure (although, my days of typing 'look around' etc were mainly restricted to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text game in which I always enjoyed typing 'give the dog a cheese sandwich').

The storms rolling through today lasted a bit longer than usual (periods of seriously heavy rain and lots of lightning for 3 hours or so), but as we arrived at Epcot around 4:45, the rain was letting up! We headed in and right over to Imagination first. Don't ask why, but we still do it every visit. Not only is it a poor excuse for what used to be a great attraction, but today the sound was not working well in the Figment's house scene and the stink of the skunk was almost non-existent. Pretty sad.... Then we went over to the Land to use some FP+ for Soarin' one more time this trip followed by some light dinner at Sunshine Seasons - still the best in-park counter service for my money, although the Patisserie in France is catching up quickly.

Time then to move to the other side of Future World for FP+ for Mission:Space. We went on the green side since we had just eaten (and since the girls had already done orange side this trip and we wanted to go together). Didn't really need the FP+ as there was absolutely no wait for green. Not that things aren't crowded this week, but I think the rain drove a lot of people out and I suspect that the July 4th celebration hangover (or for some the Frozen hangover) may have lasted into today.

Then we hit the last Universe of Energy presentation for the night, just a few minutes before 7pm. I still have no idea what to think about this attraction. The attraction itself is quite amazing - the ride vehicles, the animatronic dinosaurs, just the whole building is magnificent. I am still mildly entertained by the antics of Ellen and Bill Nye (and Jamie Lee Curtis, Alex Trebek, Willard Scott, Michael Richards, and the rest) and like the premise, but it seems such a stretch at times and is definitely quite dated. It certainly isn't the biggest of Epcot's issues, but it is far from what it could (and maybe should) be.

After that, we actually went back into the Training Center of Mission:Space for DD to play some of the games and make some video postcards and then we did the same thing at Project Tomorrow (the end of Spaceship Earth). DW has some good pics on her phone, so I'll have to get some of those for you later.

With DD starting soccer tomorrow, we were back in the room to rest and finish packing at 8:30pm and now we are getting to sleep!

 

[brifraz]

So far a park-less day. Up this morning and over to Wide World of Sports for soccer check-in. Once DD was all set, DW and I went over to Downtown Disney to pick up some gifts for folks - not entirely successful, but that's OK. We then went off site for lunch at Outback Steakhouse in Kissimmee (we had a gift card - nothing like a free meal) and came back to the Soccer Academy at about 2pm to watch the end of practice. I'll post a couple of soccer pics later. Once they were done at 3pm, DD was just too tired for much of anything. Now that she has rested for close to an hour, we are headed to the Saratoga Springs main pool.

BTW - issues with check-in here at Saratoga. Evidently somehow between checking out of OKW and checking in online here, our bands got de-activated for room entry (still good for the parks, though). So, even though our room was ready earlier today, we never got the text because they couldn't link it to our bands....I guess after 8 days, we shouldn't be surprised that we have finally had our fist Magic Bands issue!

 

[brifraz]

Here are some pics from yesterday (July 6) from DQ, Raglan Road, and Epcot.

Training DW in the finer art of Pac-Man.


A couple of friends we ran into at Raglan Road, last name of Kilkenny.


Project Tomorrow fun and games.



And now a couple from today at Disney Soccer Academy!

 

[HakunaMatata89]

your firework pictures are awesome

 

[brifraz]

your firework pictures are awesome

Thanks! I look forward to actually going through all 300 that I have taken on this trip and finding the 5 or 6 truly good ones and cleaning them up to print.

 

[mrdrift]

Fantastic trip report so far with some really great pictures. Will be following.

 

[brifraz]

Another Disney day down (working on my alliteration skills). The day started again with getting up early to get DD over to Disney Soccer Academy for her to play all day (and sweat...up well into the 90s today). She is really enjoying it, although she did get a little bit sunburnt out there today!


While she was there, DW and I went off-site (crazy, huh - out of the bubble!) to pick up a few things and then came back for a little relaxing at the Paddock Pool at Saratoga Springs followed by a trip into Epcot for lunch and a couple drinks with Carl at the Rose and Crown. Very slow today, I guess everyone was in line at Universal (seriously...7 hours in a line for a ride). While there we met and talked to quite a few CMs as they were the main visitors today.

By 3pm, we were picking up DD and heading back to Saratoga for some family pool time. Relaxed and cooled off in the water for an hour or so - and while we were there, won the poolside Disney trivia contest (24 our of 26 correct) and picked up some dinner from the grill there. Back to the room to eat and watch a little bit of the World Cup game - sadly a blowout by the time we turned it on. Felt bad for the thousands we saw today in their Brazil jerseys.

After dinner, we headed to Hollywood Studios for a little fun (and FP+ for Tower of Terror and Toy Story). On the way in, the storms were starting to come up behind the Hollywood Hotel.


In addition to riding Tower of Terror and Toy Story, we took a little time to play in the snow.


By the time we were heading out, the storms were a lot closer!


But we did have a little time for some fun with Olaf(s) in the parking lot. Yup, we're turning the parking lot into an attraction - we're just that crazy.


And, evidently, Olaf has been given his own show on ABC Family.


See you tomorrow!

 

[coachwnh]

Great soccer day in Disney. That has to be very cool for your daughter! Great job with the trivia at the pool. Have a great day tomorrow.

 

[brifraz]

Man are we getting tired....day 11 is all wrapped up. Up early for some breakfast and took DD to soccer camp around 8:15am. Not sure what all was going on at Wide World of Sports today, but it was CRAZY packed over there. All week has been AAU basketball tourney, a volleyball tourney, a couple baseball tourneys, but today there was some kind of track meet also and maybe more. Suffice to say by 8:30am, they were already parking people on the far fields, so we just did drop off up front!

Once she was all set, DW and I followed a similar plan to yesterday - lounging by the pool followed by lunch. This time it was at Big River over at the Boardwalk. DW @MeffysMom and I are beer (searching for the right word...afficianados? fans? snobs? nerds?) drinkers and have each tried well over a thousand different beers (we used to frequent a bar where they kept track) and our verdict on Big River's brews. "Meh." Nothing special, but the jalapeno/spinach/cheese dip really hit the spot!

When we went to pick DD up at 2:30pm, the afternoon storms were just rolling in and WWoS was even more insane - all those athletes and families and fans packing into the field house from all the outdoor facilities was crazy. We actually managed to get DD and get out before the rain really started (and somehow, the rain really never hit us - although most of the places we went were soaked when we got there) and we drove over to Magic Kingdom to catch a boat to Fort Wilderness for dinner at Trail's End.

Today's photos are all for specific needs, sorry no fun family shots today - between keeping the nice camera in the room because of the storm threat and the fact that our activities were not as unique as usual...

Took the ferry across to MK and took a few pictures of the ongoing construction of DVC at Polynesian. I have more if you want them @wdwmagic


Dinner was nice. We enjoyed Trail's End and definitely appreciated the price tag - I'd say it is the best buffet meal value at Disney. And we did manage to have some sugar cookies for dessert (owing to today being National Sugar Cookie Day). As promised, here's a photo of those cookies for @trr1 @MOXOMUMD @JenniferS @StarWarsGirl95 @NYwdwfan @Gabe1 @Soarin' Over Pgh @Cesar R M @donaldtoo @PUSH and all the other Sageteers.


After dinner, it was back over to Magic Kingdom to use FP+ for Jungle Cruise (not the best skipper, but she delivered the material), Pirates (darn people in the boat behind us taking flash pictures every 10 seconds), and Splash Mountain (wet, but not soaked). We then weaved our way through the masses preparing for the parade to get a couple souvenirs before heading out. The crowd was quite mixed in attitude - the 3 or 4 groups of 100+ Argentine high schoolers were singing and dancing and partying, the 3 or 4 groups of 100+ Brazilian high schoolers were looking dejected and trying to find the energy to mock the Argentinians. Rather interesting to watch the interaction between the rival nationalities who just experienced polar opposite football (soccer) results.

Tomorrow is the final day - one more day of soccer camp and a little bit of MK touring afterwards (and perhaps another Epcot lunch for us grownups). Then home for 3 days before our next trip....more on that later....