Trip Report 2016 Disney Cruise To Western Caribbean and F&W Festival

Hello Friends!

It feels like it has been ages since I post a complete trip report on this forum. My last one was an abbreviated report on the Wanyama Safari that we took during one of our trips. And before that, my last complete trip report was on the Trade City, USA pin trading event back in 2010! That was 6 years ago! Whoa!

So I thought it is about time I do another report. This will be ongoing that will include a visit to the Kennedy Space Center, a 7-night cruise on the Disney Fantasy, and finally, a few days at WDW. We leave for FL tomorrow heading off to Orlando. Then, after a quick stop at Disney Springs to renew our annual passes, we'll make a quick hop to Epcot, and then we'll pick up a couple of our friends who will be arriving mid afternoon at MCO before heading to Cocoa Beach.

We will visit the Kennedy Space Center on Friday, and then our cruise will commence on Saturday. We will get back to Port Canaveral the following Saturday. Our port-of-calls will be Cozumel, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and of course, Castaway Cay. I have been on a few Disney Cruises before (all of them on the Disney Dream). This will be my first time on the Disney Fantasy, and it will also be my first Halloween Cruise!

And yes, I am very looking forward to it. I have my costume ready!

We will do a number of planned excursion at the various port-of-calls. I'm planning to tour the ruins at Cozumel, and we will do the zip-line plus the bob-sled run in Jamaica. Yeah!

When we get to WDW, we have tickets for the Star Wars dessert party and MNSSHP. And of course, we will be doing F&W festival.

So this will be a packed and exciting trip! I will try to post my reports whenever I can during the trip, but as you can guess, not much during the cruise since I won't have an internet connection (maybe at the port-of-calls since we have international roaming on T-mobile). I hope no one will mind if I also include a report on the Kennedy Space Center on here.

Still have a few more things to pack before our early morning flight tomorrow. I just know that I won't be able to sleep much tonight!

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Yesterday, we started out at Epcot, mainly to do our lunch at F&W Festival. OMG, Epcot was packed like sardines!

Luckily, by mid afternoon, we decided to get some respite from the crowds and hang out in the DVC Lounge at the Imigination Pavilion. We love this place. They have drinks, charging stations, tables, computers, and now and then, a cart with munchies. I hope DVC considers doing this permanently for its members and not just during its 25th anniversary celebration.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

We then hopped over to DAK for the rest of the day. The crowds were more manageable at DAK, but the weather was still as perfect!

We had fast passes to Everest, followed by another fast passes to Kilimanjaro Safari.

But of course, we had to eat again. Flame Tree BBQ smoked chicken... Yum...!!!

We then stayed for the lightning of the Tree of Life. We stayed several minutes to watch the different shows in between doing shopping.

It was already a very long day for us by the time we left DAK, considering that we were up at 5 am to get ready to disembarked from the Disney Fantasy.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

It's a perfectly gorgeous day here at MK. We just finished our lunch at Columbia Harbour House. I had my favorite, which was the grilled salmon with couscous and broccoli. Delicious!

We will wonder around a bit before fast pass at Buzz at 1:30.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

It's been a great day so far. We did Buzz (long lines even for fast passes), had a Mickey mini sundae, and now we are sitting down on Main Street waiting for the 3 o'clock parade.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

A terrific evening so far for MNSSHP. We have tons of candies! Did several attractions and danced with Mike and sully.

Still to view HalloWishes and Boo To You parade.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Yawn.... is it morning already?

We had a very long day at MK yesterday, staying on for MNSSHP. But, if there's a time to do it, it was definitely yesterday. The weather couldn't be more perfect.

Earlier in the day, we did our fast passes. We did Buzz....

And then we did Mine Train.

Of course, we had to have snacks along the way. We had the Mickey mini kitchen sink....

.. and of course, the obligatory Nutella waffles, which has now becoming a must whenever we go to MK.

They were both yummy, to say the least.

The MNSSHP last night was not busy at all, which was perfect. We really just walked right up to Ariel..

..... and then walked right onto It's A Small World...

... and then onto Dumbo.

There were ZERO waits on those attraction!

We watched HalloWishes, Celebrate the Magic, Boo To You parade, and the Hocus Pocus stage show, which was better than I expected even though on any other day, I would have skipped it.

Today, we do Studios. We have a reservation for the Star Wars dessert party tonight along with the fireworks. So, another long day at the parks.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

At Studios but waiting for the slow boat to Epcot. Toy story mania only has one track running and the fast pass line is long. So change of plans.

 

[ZapperZ]

After the slow boat ride, we are finally at World Showcase at Epcot.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Yes, feels as nice as it looks!.

We ate our way thru half of World Showcase. We are now returning to Studios todo our fast passes.

 

[ZapperZ]

Made it to Studios. At a popular stop-the Starbucks.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

DHS has been invaded!

 

[ZapperZ]

Having a late lunch at ABC Com. so that we don't have to eat dinner before our Star Wars dessert party tonight.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

About to check in to Hollywood Tower Hotel. Hope it is a good Hotel because it looks kinda decrepit. I should have read Trip Advisor before I made the reservation.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Gosh, I really need to clean my garage!

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Window shopping before the start of Star Wars dessert party.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

At the Star Wars dessert party inside Launch Bay.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

More desserts!

I've eaten too much already. I'm going into a sugar shock!

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

We were escorted by a couple of storm troooers to our fireworks viewing area.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Good morning!

Another fine morning here at WDW. We had a great time yesterday at Studios. I think I haven't been on Toy Story Mania enough. I only scored 178,000 points, highest in the vehicle at that time, but still an awful score for me. Ugh, I don't come here often enough to practice, obviously.

The Star Wars fireworks show was good. But it is a bit confusing on what it is, and where to look, because it was waaaaaaay too busy! It was spectacular, but I have a feeling I missed a lot of the high-points in this single viewing.

The show may suffer from the same problem as the old fireworks show over MK - TREES! I remember coming to MK one year and it felt more open at the hub. It turned out that they cut the big trees at the Hub to make it easier to view the fireworks, and this probably added to their ability to project stuff onto the castle. The same thing may occur at the Studios if they intend to keep this type of shows there. There are trees (the palm trees especially) that just blocked the views of many of the projections and images. I won't be surprised these trees are gone once they decide if the evening shows are going to continue, especially after both Star Wars land and the Toy Story land are done.

BTW, I find the off-center display of the fireworks a bit disconcerting. I don't know if this is just a matter of personal preference, but it did look a bit odd. They did a lot of stuff during the show, but I'm not sure if I like it as a whole.

Studios has another bigger issues that they have to deal with. First, what is with opening just ONE store on their main strip after the show is over? As the crowds are walking out after the fireworks show, only one store was kept opened. Everything else, even Starbucks, was closed! I couldn't believe my eyes, considering that almost every store on Main Street in MK are usually wide opened trying to milk every last dollar out of your pocket before you leave. I was planning on making last-minute purchases, but you can guess that the only opened store on the way out in Studios was jammed-packed. So I kept my money and walked out.

The second problem is more significant. Studios have never been a huge park, and if they are going to continue having such night-time show, then they should expect that a lot of people are going to be leaving ALL AT THE SAME TIME. This is something the area has problem in handling, especially with cars streaming out all at once. Studios is the ONLY WDW theme park where the immediate exit from the parking lot bumps into traffic lights! Not only that, vehicles from different sides of the lanes will have a short distance to change lanes depending if you want to make a left or a right at the traffic signal intersection.

So yes, our drive out last night was a mess! We crawled, and crawled, and crawled out of the parking lot. Driving lanes disappeared suddenly, and vehicles merging in and out of traffic. If Disney wants and expects Studios's attendance to increase, especially after the two new areas are built, the traffic issue MUST be addressed. There has to be a better way to get vehicles in and out of the parking areas.

There! I feel better now that I've vented a bit.

Today is Epcot day, all day. We have fastpasses to Soarin', but that's it. We plan on eating through F&W once again. And tonight, we'll stay for Illuminations, which is my most favorite night-time fireworks show in all of WDW. This is our last full day here since we fly back tomorrow afternoon. Can't believe the 2 weeks had gone just like that!l

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Oh, I forgot to mention that I will continue with the report from the cruise once I get back. I just need to properly download the more-than-1000 photos that I took on my camera.

Zz.