back to life... back to reality...

we're back from our nine day trip to WDW! we were there Jul 29 to Aug 7. It seems there is never enough time to do everything that I want to do... no matter how much time I plan... oh well, it will give me an excuse to plan for another trip in the future!

One of the highlights of our trip was riding M.S. 2x!! It was awesome!!

 

[tigsmom]

Glad you had a great time! I passed on M:S, but my hubby and little one gave it a try!

 

[EmeraldDolphin]

Originally posted by tigsmom
Glad you had a great time! I passed on M:S, but my hubby and little one gave it a try!

Thanks! Did you & your family have a great time also? ... I hope that you did!


Tues. July 29 ... day 1... We were up to take showers & do our last minute packing at 4 a.m. and left for the airport at about 5:30 to get there for our 6:50 flight. We arrived in Orlando around 9:30 a.m. and took our shuttle to get our rental car, and then we were off to International Drive. We hit our favorite malls there, and found a new favorite, it has a Ron Jon Surf store, and a Hilo Hattie Hawaiian store. Then we hit Pointe Orlando and had our traditional lunch at Johnny Rockets. By then we headed to All Star Music to check-in. It took over an hour to check in, which didn't make me really happy... you make a reservation months in advance, and they didn't have us in a room... they had our reservation... but no room... then they found a room with a king size bed... we thought that we were going to have to settle for that, and they located a room in the Jazz section with two double beds... finally. We got in to our room, which we really liked the location, and freshened up, then headed to DTD. We didn't stay too long, because we were both sooo incredibly tired from being up from 4 a.m. So, it was about 9:30 when we headed to our room for the night.

 

[Pippa]

Don't you find that with each trip to WDW you just want to go more and more??!!

Glad to hear you had a good time!

 

[EmeraldDolphin]

Wed. July 30... Day 2 Our day at Sea World. We saw all the shows to see, Dolphin, Shamu, Sea Lion & Otter show, and went in to all the attractions, sharks, stingrays, penguins, Clydesdale horses, & dolphin lagoon. We rode on Wild Artic first thing when we got there, and there wasn't a line yet... when we came out, and for the rest of the day we saw a line there. We were waiting in line to ride Kraken, and they made an announcement that they were having technical problems and they didn't know how long it was going to be... we waited as long as possible, but we had our dine with Shamu reservations for 5:00 p.m. and so we finally had to just leave the line to go to dinner. The dinner was a very enjoyable buffet, and the interaction with the killer whales was very cool. After dinner there was a chance to meet with the trainer, and ask questions. My daughter wants to work with Dolphins and marine life very much when she is older, and she is just starting high school this year, and so she had a chance to ask the trainer questions about where she should focus her studies. By the time we were done with dinner, there was a storm rolling in, and so we decided to finish up for the day at Sea World, and head back to our resort. They were offering a second day free, so we took advantage of that and got our free tickets to return within 7 days. The new waterfront area at Sea World is really very nice. We were back to our room early again for our second night.

 

[GalacticGobbler]

Originally posted by EmeraldDolphin
Thanks! Did you & your family have a great time also? ... I hope that you did!


It took over an hour to check in, which didn't make me really happy...

Sorry it took so long. Glad you had fun though.

 

[Katherine]

DOn't worry your not the only one with disney reservation problems. Almost every time we go it seems like something is wrong with our reservation.:lol: It's almost become a family joke(if it weren't for my dad who get's angry but keeps his "cool":lookaroun ). Anyways glad to hear you had a good time!

 

[EmeraldDolphin]

Originally posted by Pippa
Don't you find that with each trip to WDW you just want to go more and more??!!

It's so true! It's definitely an addiction for me!

Thurs. July 31 Day 3 We had a p.s. for 8 a.m. at Ohana's for a character breakfast. I drove over, and parked in the MK lot... don't know how that happened... but it wasn't too bad... we walked over to the Poly. We had a great breakfast!! The food was more than enough!! The pineapple bread was delicious!! We thought there would be more characters... there was Mickey, Goofy, Chip & Dale, and that was it... but we had a lot of fun. After breakfast we were glad for the walk back to the car, and we drove back to the resort, and freshened up to head to EPCOT! We got to ride M.S. 2x!! It was awesome!! We passed on Test Track because the fast pass return was like at 8 p.m. and the standby line was 70 minutes. We've both done it before, and so we both decided to pass. We went on S.E. and through all the attractions in the front of the park. We had a late lunch at Coral Seas, which was very nice. After lunch we decided to head to W.S. and start with Canada going counter clockwise. The sky was getting dark, and by the time we left Canada and were heading to the UK the sky opened up, and it was pouring!! We bought a history of my husband's family name at the UK, and it mentions his grandfather in it! We kept heading around hitting most of the countries briefly, mainly because there were so many people gathered in all the doorways, that it made it difficult to get in and out. When we got to Japan we ended up in a puddle about 5" deep! UGH! Our sneakers and socks were so uncomfortably drenched!! When we got to Norway the rain had slowed, so we went on that ride, and then we rode the ride in Mexico, visiting each place briefly... then we decided we were so uncomfortable, that we left EPCOT, and headed back to our resort. We got some really awesome taco salads at our food court and brought them back to our room to eat that night.

 

[LouDisney]

Glad you had a good time!
I know what ya mean about wanting more. I am looking so forward to May!

 

[EmeraldDolphin]

Friday Aug. 1 The day I most looked forward to, out of all of them! We went to Animal Kingdom for the early entrance day, and the park was so incredibly packed... I've never seen that many people there... and they were all resort guests... We headed directly to the Safari ride, and only waited about 15 minutes to ride. Then we went in to the Tree of Life for the Bugs Life. Then it was time to get in line for The Lion King Festival show... and we were there plenty early. It's so hot down there this time of year, but if you keep moving it's not as bad as just standing in one place waiting... when it was time, they let us in, and we got great seats, and they made the announcement that the 9:50 a.m. show was not going to happen because of technical problems... they had a character meet & greet which was pretty cool, but I was disappointed about not seeing the show itself. After that we just checked out a couple of gift shops, and decided to head out... we've been there quite a few times, and that was all we really wanted to accomplish there that day. We drove over to WalMart on rte 192 in Kissimmee, and then bought lunch at Checkers and brought it back to our resort. Then we headed to MK!! I was so excited about that because it was e-ride night! We got our wrist bands, and went off to go on all the rides we could during the afternoon. We rode Space Mt. and TTA, and COP, and then headed to the other side of the park. We rode POTC & The Tiki Room, and headed back to Haunted Mansion & then over to It's a Small World. We really rode all that we wanted to during the day, except Splash Mt., Big Thunder Mt. and Buzz Lightyear... we decided to wait on those for e-ride... not knowing what to expect from e-ride. Well, the daily afternoon storm rolled in, and the parade was canceled... we had flip-flops in our backpack, and changed out of our finally dry sneakers to flip-flops during the downpour so they wouldn't get drenched again... wearing those big ol' yellow panchos are not fun either... during the storm we missed our fast pass for Big Thunder Mt because they shut down the rides outside because of the storm... We had dinner in that Pavillion in tomorrowland. Then it had stopped raining enough when it was time for fireworks, and the firework show was nice. Finally... e-ride time!! We rode Space MT a couple of times, but the lines weren't as short as I had heard other people say, and we got put in the same exact seat both times during e-ride, and earlier in the day too... that was ok... I was in the very back seat, and it was pretty cool! We rode Buzz Lightyear, and then headed to HM, and rode that a couple of times... we actually got on Splash MT that night too, and Big Thunder MT 2x. We were in the back the first time, and it was way cool... went really fast. Then the second time we rode we were in the front, and the front was just not as fast, and not as much fun. Around 12:30 a.m. we were so exhausted that we decided to head out. It was pretty close to 2:00 a.m. when we got to bed. I felt kind of let down, after looking forward to e-ride for sooo long, and it was our first one, so not knowing what to expect I just expected a lot more I guess.......

 

[marypopmom]

Wow sounds like you had a great time. Thanks for sharing. That is smart to pack the flip flops. Last year we had 5 people using one hair dryer to dry out sneakers. I said, thats it, everyone put on your water shoes! After thinking they would look ridiculous walking around the MK with water shoes they were happy we had a great evening and didnt waste anymore time.