Trip Report *FINISHED* The "How did all these people get in here?" That's what she said Trip Report

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Day 15 Update - *FINISHED* The "How did all these people get in here?" That's what she said Trip Report


Hello!

First off my thank you's to people will be held at the very end of my report. So if you feel like you should be thanked for something, or shown my appreciation for something...you're going to have to wait a while. Nobody cares about you anyway.

Secondly, I used the up-loader on this site for my pictures and it kind of did a number on them. Once I get everything situated with a photo hosting site this will continue. Thing that sucks is all those sites are blocked through my work computer so I am going to have to actually do this on my on time and not works time.

*Warning*

What you’re about to read are my thoughts and feelings from my most recent trip to Walt Disney World. A lot of sarcasm and pointing out the moronic things other humans do…along with their rudeness and pure oblivious behavior to others around them will be written here.

If you put kids on your shoulders to watch fireworks, leave messy food trays at tables or other places other than a trash can for someone else to clean, take flash pictures on or in “dark attractions”, stop in the middle of rows to sit down, talk during shows, pull that metal latch on the hotel door so it stops your door from closing and you continue to open your hotel door and let it slam shut 20 times in a row at 7am and other dumb inconsiderate things…you MIGHT not want to read this.

If you enjoy sarcasm, “decent” photography, food ography, side stories, pictures of people dressed “special”, and most of all ME!!! Then you are in the right place.

Swear words might be abbreviated. I may think that things YOU do are ignorant and inconsiderate to others around you. Please don’t be offended. LEARN from it. Don’t cry about it. I am not going to argue with you or justify why you should be beat with wet dish rags because you like to hang out and talk with other guests in your party in doorways leading to the entrance/exit of an attraction or the middle of stairs. There is just no hope for you.

This report is made to be funny. It is also made to be serious and informative as well. I don’t have ANY behind the scenes knowledge but I do feel like I have a pretty good grasp on how to have a pretty great time in Disney World and where you should eat delicious food.

I take a TON of photographs and I work rather hard to get good photographs not only for myself but for all of you to hopefully enjoy as well. I pride myself in taking awesome food photographs. I like to feel someone responsible for the big “boom” on this around here.

When I first started planning Disney Trips on my own I always wanted to see what the food looked like before I arrived. There was really NOWHERE to find it. So, I said to myself “Take pictures of EVERYTHING you eat and see and post them to help other people in the same boat as you.” I am a picky eater, which is why this was important to me. I hope along the way I have helped some people out. I hope this report does too. I took 3,444 photographs on just MY camera alone!

This trip is two years, well it WAS two years in the making.

The cast of this trip my fiancée Colleen and me.

Here I am...

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Here is Colleen, she is so hood.

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Also an "Artist"

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...and the much needed couple post...

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We knew we were going to, and when we were going to go but we booked it for real in April. That was the deadline so that we could do our 180+10 dining reservation thing.

We booked All Star Sports Resort arriving on October 9th and departing October 23rd! I missed the big turf field and being able to go out there and throw football after a long day of Typhoon Lagooning, Dining and Park Hopping. But that plan would soon crumble just like most of our plans this trip.

After calling and speaking to Disney World for what feels like 80 times checking for further discounts on the Cast Member plan never ever never once did they mention to me “Oh by the way, the food court at All Star Sports will be closed during your stay.” I had to accidentally find out about it on here.

So now we are faced with our first “White People Problems” of the trip.

Stay at All Star Sports and use Movies and or Music Food Courts?

Or…

Try for Art of Animation or Pop Century which we both hated on a previous trip?

We ended up at Pop because Art of Animation was booked solid. We figured we could walk across The Generation Gap Bridge and eat at AoA because that was really the only thing that appealed to us about staying at AoA in the first place. So here we are now at a hotel we both really did not want to stay at. We are 3 months out and we are already switching things around that we really did not want to switch at all. We almost considered spending more money and staying at Port Orleans or Caribbean Beach. It just did not make sense because we do not spend a lot of time at the resort, or so we thought…

About a month our from our arrival date I got an email asking if I wanted to participate in testing for Magic Bands. Umm, of course I do. You just made me feel really important by sending me this email. So we selected our colors and a day later we got these via UPS!

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A few days later our Magical Express packet came.

Now all that is left is our trip. No more ADR’s, no more waiting for things in the mail…the next big step is near.

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Day 1 10/9/2013

Finally…The day has come. Up at 3am, well alarm is set for 3am. We don’t have to leave until 4am. I think we dragged ourselves…yes we still had to drag ourselves out of bed knowing what was waiting for us a few short hours away. I think we left the house at like 4:15am for the 25-30 min right to Pittsburgh International Airport. Pretty weird that it’s 25 minutes from Pittsburgh though. Oh well.

We got to the airport checked our bags got through security all less than 10 minutes. Our gate for Air Tran was as far away as possible. I never have been that far back in the airport. The funniest thing I noticed at the airport is that it was 5:20am and Quaker Steak and Lube was about to open up. (Skip ahead 15 days) We passed it again when we returned home at 9:50pm and they were closed. That is pretty weird.

(Back to present time)

It is now time to board our flight. Our flight was pretty full. Normally our plane is half full but there were not too many seats open on our plane. AWESOME flight though. No bumps or dips at all. We arrived at MCO in about 1 hour and 50 minutes. 25 minutes earlier than posted. Sorry no airplane pictures. It was dark the whole time and then nothing but clouds. We came out of the clouds and landed 5 minutes after.

I know where I am going once we get off the “monorail” at MCO but it always strikes me as odd that they have pretty much zero signs saying where to go to check in for The Magical Express. Oh well…good thing I am not new at this. This is really all the help you get, but it is down on the bottom floor when you should pretty much already know where you are going!

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Then at the 2 mile point we saw this...

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To be continued...
 
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blackthidot

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
Yes
Day 11 10/19/2013

We are going to Magic Kingdom today! We have dinner scheduled for Be Our Guest as well.

Let’s begin…

Leaving Pop to head towards MK…

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Man, let me say this…the lifeguards are ON DUTY now. There is ALWAYS 2 of them at a time. They walk furiously up and down the sides of the pool waving their pointed fingers up and down. No clue what they are doing and what they are making markers for. I did not ask because they just seemed miserable to say the least. Oh well, moving along…

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Epcot bus!

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The Grand Floridian…

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To be continued…
 

blackthidot

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
Yes
Day 11 10/19/2013 Continued…

Entering Main Street USA. VERY beautiful to see.

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These folks have the right idea…

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This is Halloween, this is Halloween, this is Halloween everybody screeeeeeaaaaammmm…

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We made our way over to CoP because A. It’s never busy. 2. We still had a LITTLE bit more time before our Space Mountain FP+ was due.

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After CoP and Space we had a FP for Buzz Lightyear to use that we grabbed on the way over to Tomorrowland. I love Space Ranger Spin. It seems like it is always over before it even begins but it is still a fun ride…At least I think so.

To be continued…
 

blackthidot

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
Yes
Day 11 10/19/2013 Continued…

Continuing with the photo blast…

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My dude…nice job repping hockey but my god…how did he not pass out from how tight his shirt is?

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Now it’s time to go in. We were seated in The West Wing and that was AWESOME.

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When lightning strikes…

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To be continued…
 

blackthidot

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
Yes
Day 11 10/19/2013 Continued…

Now, our dinner…

Some rolls…

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Colleen ordered the Sautéed Shrimp and Scallops…

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I had The Grilled Strip Steak…

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Time for dessert…

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I, of course had 2 Strawberry Cup Cakes with Buttercream Icing rather than Cream Cheese…

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Man, so pretty…

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Colleen had “The Grey Stuff”…

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A left over picture of our dining room…

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Colleen looking extra creepy. She is in the right room for it…

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To be continued…
 

blackthidot

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
Yes
Day 11 10/19/2013 Continued…

We got some stuff to do, and Magic Kingdom is open late tonight so we will be able to get around like we are used to. One thing about these crowds that we encountered…they do NOT stick around for Extra Magic Hours. Which leads to me believe there was a TON of local folks at the parks because bus stations and our resort was never really that crowded at all.

Before Wishes we were able to catch Thunder Mountain, and The Haunted Mansion. We then headed to Main Street so Colleen could go to Starbucks before Wishes. Main Street was PACKED. We actually got a good spot but it was still too crowded for trying to take any pictures.

After Wishes we just hung around and waited for the crowds to clear so that we could head back to Splash to use our FP’s. After we ride Splash we headed over to Gaston’s.

I got a Cinnamon Roll…

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Don’t be fooled. This thing is NOWHERE near as good as it looks. It was soooooo dry and really had no taste to it at all. I think I had 2-3 bites. I am the type of person that had I prepared this…it would be covered in icing so much that you would not even have any idea as to what it is. Colleen is the complete opposite and when she tried it she agreed it was bad. That was disappointing because these were on my list of things to get.

Colleen got herself a Lafeu’s Brew…

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This thing was actually very good. I was surprised how good it was. Had I not just inhaled a large coke I would have definitely gotten one for myself.

After Gaston’s we walked past Enchanted Tales with Belle. The sign said there was a 15 minute wait so we got in line…for 45 minutes!!! The show itself was decent. The magic mirror and Lumiere were amazing effects.

I was pretty irritated though, I mean we just wasted almost an hour and a half for something that should have taken 35-45 minutes. But it is what it is. We headed over to Hall of Presidents for the last showing of the night. The theater was empty so we sat all the way in the back row.

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Sorry Mr. Washington but maybe if you had a tan…?

After HoP we headed over to Pirates…

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Splash Mountain is up next and there is no wait!

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To be continued…
 

blackthidot

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
Yes
Day 11 10/19/2013 Continued…

Haunted Mansion…

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You want to ride again with no wait? Of course.

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Now you see them…

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Now you don’t…

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This freaking thing is so hard to get a good shot of. I must have taken 70 pictures of him this trip and THIS is the best one…

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Hidden Mickey…

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To be continued…
 

blackthidot

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
Yes
Day 11 10/19/2013 Continued…

More Mansion!

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Well, here is a small preview of something I wanted to practice doing so that I could nail it on another night. I knew I would not get it right tonight so I figured out I would get the settings, and timing right so I could go a little further than just a hitchhiking photo with us as ghosts. I could have got it right but we were tired, I wanted more than 1 picture of it and the CM’s standing just off to the right seemed like they wanted to leave as well. So here is the preview…

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And with that, ends yet another day.

Up next is DHS with a TON of Hollywood Folks and the BEST dessert I have ever had in my whole entire life!

To be continued…
 

bmarkelon

Well-Known Member
Day 11 10/19/2013 Continued…

Continuing with the photo blast…

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To be continued…

I really dig these gargoyle pics! And of course I love all the Splash Mountain pictures, one of my all time favorites. I wish we enjoyed the food at Be Our Guest as much as the atmosphere, it's tough to add it to our dining list again....
 

blackthidot

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
Yes
I really dig these gargoyle pics! And of course I love all the Splash Mountain pictures, one of my all time favorites. I wish we enjoyed the food at Be Our Guest as much as the atmosphere, it's tough to add it to our dining list again....

The food at BoG was good. I guess I forgot to mention that. I will definitely go back. Next time I will get all those vegetables replaced with something else!

Splash is one of my favs as well. I wish I had more time to get those queue area pictures to come out better.
 

bmarkelon

Well-Known Member
The food at BoG was good. I guess I forgot to mention that. I will definitely go back. Next time I will get all those vegetables replaced with something else!

Splash is one of my favs as well. I wish I had more time to get those queue area pictures to come out better.
Splash and ToT have always been my two favorite attractions from start to finish. They have the best build up with most satisfying reward to me. I have others that stand out for their own reasons of course, but that's where most of the love goes for me.
 

blackthidot

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
Yes
Splash and ToT have always been my two favorite attractions from start to finish. They have the best build up with most satisfying reward to me. I have others that stand out for their own reasons of course, but that's where most of the love goes for me.

Yeah I totally get what you mean. I think that Soarin' and ToT are the best rides...but Haunted Mansion is my favorite.
 

Tidbit

Active Member
Nobody here can figure anything out about me. Everything I tell you people is a lie.

John we "figured" you out a long time ago, but it freaks us out so we just pretend we know nothing!! LOL!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE all of the pics from this recent post! I hope to get into BOG in September because March is a total bust! I am NOT waiting in line for over an hour for lunch, so I'll try for Sept!! Pics from Splash are really good, but the ones from HM which is also my fav are AWESOME!!! Love the "ghost" pics too!
 

blackthidot

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
Yes
John we "figured" you out a long time ago, but it freaks us out so we just pretend we know nothing!! LOL!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE all of the pics from this recent post! I hope to get into BOG in September because March is a total bust! I am NOT waiting in line for over an hour for lunch, so I'll try for Sept!! Pics from Splash are really good, but the ones from HM which is also my fav are AWESOME!!! Love the "ghost" pics too!

Haha thanks for "playing" along with me then.

BoG was def cool. I think atmosphere may play a big role in the overall experience though. I remember eating my steak and not being blown away but I was so occupied with my surroundings that I really did not care. Don't get me wrong...it was not bad at all it just was not great. Sort of like Coral Reef almost. Food is good, atmosphere is great so it goes hand in hand. Definitely something you should experience, for sure.

My advice...be up early on your 180 days out and try and book it for the tale end side of your trip. This way since you're doing 180 + 10 you're almost guaranteed to get it!
 

blackthidot

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
Yes
John we "figured" you out a long time ago, but it freaks us out so we just pretend we know nothing!! LOL!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE all of the pics from this recent post! I hope to get into BOG in September because March is a total bust! I am NOT waiting in line for over an hour for lunch, so I'll try for Sept!! Pics from Splash are really good, but the ones from HM which is also my fav are AWESOME!!! Love the "ghost" pics too!


What the heck happened to the trip report you had up before?
 

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