On the trip – Me, my girl friend, her 18 YO son, my 17 YO son, my 13 YO daughter, my brother and his 4 kids, 15, 13, 11, 9.
Trip dates: June 15th – 23rd, 2013
Advanced plans:
Art of Animation – Lion King
Drive in on Sunday after a Saturday beach day: check in and then Disney Quest followed by 9PM T-Rex Dinner
Monday: Hollywood Studio with a lunch at Mama Melrose fantasmic package and Magic Hours
Tuesday: EPCOT and dinner at Coral Reef AND magic hours
Wednesday: Animal Kingdom and T-rex dinner
Thursday: Water parks BB in Morning and TL after lunch
Friday: Magic Kingdom with O’Hana dinner reservation
How’d it turn out?
Checked in at AoA and jumped on a bus to Downtown Disney as fast as we could.
Arrived at Disney Quest at around 3pm and had a great time running around having fun. First time to try the Pirates of the Caribbean game…it was great. Then it was off to T-Rex where the atmosphere and food were great as expected. The rain caught us on the way to the bus, and soaked us, but it was over by arrival at the AoA and had some good pool time.
Monday breakfast was good, but was very disappointed at the lack of enthusiasm by the cast members who, a year ago would yell out when prompted by a phrase, but this year would not. Arrived at HS and had a great early day and mama Melrose was awesome. Shows and rides were great, but an intense storm came through and ended our day just as Fantasmic was going to start. BUT it didn’t even rain at AoA so had some unexpected pool time which was good.
After Tuesday’s breakfast at AoA we were off to EPCOT and we were there by 9am. I ran and got the group soaring fast passes while they got in line for test track. I have ridden the old test track a dozen times but this was the first time on the new test track. It was good but I just liked the old Queue and ride so much better. Still a good ride though. Mission space was still great and the soarin projection and 4-d smells were better than last year. There was no line for the Mickey and Minnie meet and greet, so everyone in the family got some great pictures. Had ADR at the coral reef at 9 so missed the fireworks for the first time but the food was good and the atmosphere even better. Loved having sharks, turtles, and rays swim by feet from me as we ate. Hit test track one last time before we left thanks to Magic Hours. The pool felt great on my feet at AoA when we got back and the kids played some.
Wednesday we were off to the AK. I have always loved the Lion King show for many reasons. Mainly though because my kids (now 17 and 13) have always just “lit up” while watching it. So it was a must see and I was just as amazed to see how much they still just smile and laugh during this show. But at rope drop I rushed off for Expedition Everest Fast passes while the group got in line for the safari. A friend of the family who is from our town drives for the safari and we were lucky enough to get him this trip. We had a lot of fun with him joking and asking a lot of questions. If you ever get Jimmy as a driver tell him hi from El Dorado. Two years in a row the Dinosaur ride was having some issues – entire middle section of the ride was completely dark and could not be seen at all. The group picture was great though. I just enjoy this park so much.
Thursday we were off by 8:30 to Blizzard Beach with plans to transfer over to Typhoon Lagoon after lunch. Enjoyed BB and as boarding or bus to transfer over a storm came through that just settled in over TL. We tried waiting it out, as it seemed as if it would move on but we finally gave in and returned to AoA where we found once again that not even a cloud had visited there. So we hit the pool running. We also had ESPN ADR for that night so around 8 we headed over to the board walk where it was still raining and had a good dinner at ESPN (even though I had no dog in the fight we joined in rooting on the spurs with the few spur fans there just because they were out numbered. It was a fun crowd).
Friday was our final park day. I didn’t mention that everyday had a 40% chance of rain in the afternoon, so we took our ponchos and purchased a locker to hold them just in case we needed them. No exception for this day. Got Space Mountain fast passes and went to check out fantasyland and rode everything over there. At Gaston’s we got a some beer look-a-like drink with I think pineapple and honey it was gooooooood. Then did the rest of the park (space mountain, laugh floor, stitch, race way, tea cups, haunted mansion, and then thunder mountain) we were in a 45-minute wait for Splash Mountain when lighting closed the ride down. We could see the rain coming so decided to get the ponchos and head off early to our 5pm O’Hana ADR (a quick jump on the monorail to the Polynesian). We arrived at 4:15 and spent some time looking around this hotel for hidden Mickey’s until our reservation time came up. Found enough to keep us happy. The dinner was great and what was even better is we watched it storm outside the entire time and just before we finished the rain stopped. We rode back to the MK did splash mountain, the pirates of the Caribbean had a dole whip and got great seats for the electric light parade castle show and fireworks. The new show on the castle was very very good, but I wish they would have kept some of the photos from the park like in the past.
Saturday morning the kids all were up and in the pool by 8am. The older of us slept in and woke up to pack the bags. We had a 10 am breakfast/lunch before checking out.
One personal note about the photopass+: this is the second time we have chosen to use this. If you are into character meals and ride pictures then it just seams like a no brainer to me. Ride pictures are soooooo expensive. In the past wherever I go it is a challenge to decide which pics we should or should not buy. With this option we get them all. We don’t miss a trick. Tower of Terror for example we got to ride over 6 times. The first picture we always just enjoy the ride for what it is and let the reactions be what they are but the other rides we do silly stuff like hug or all do the same gesture or face, and we get all those pics. So, for all our favorites where we ride more than once we get to have even more fun. If you pre-order and get the discount I really just love it. We never miss a chance for a photo op either. It takes no time as we pass a photographer to get a quick pic. And we always ask for magic pics too. One fun part for me is that as I run off to get fast passes for the group I’m always alone. As I pass photographers I get pics with them and sometime do silly stuff that know one knows about except me. It is always great when we get the pics in and look at them and the group gets a good laugh at my expense that they didn’t even know about. Overall we took over 900 pics on our phones and cameras and had over 200 from the park rides or photographers. I’ve uploaded ours to the photopass account and have been working on putting some Disney magic on some of the better ones.
Last but not least, I have been lucky. I lived near Orlando for about 5 years at one point and had Florida resident passes then, and other than that have visited WDW on many other occasions. I feel like I know the parks as good as a lot of people. This may have been my last trip for a while. I still feel like I haven’t seen or done it all. Experiencing O’Hana for the first time was special…I loved it. Don’t ever think you can do it all on one trip or feel like you have too. Enjoy what you can and do. Plan ahead a little.
Trip dates: June 15th – 23rd, 2013
Advanced plans:
Art of Animation – Lion King
Drive in on Sunday after a Saturday beach day: check in and then Disney Quest followed by 9PM T-Rex Dinner
Monday: Hollywood Studio with a lunch at Mama Melrose fantasmic package and Magic Hours
Tuesday: EPCOT and dinner at Coral Reef AND magic hours
Wednesday: Animal Kingdom and T-rex dinner
Thursday: Water parks BB in Morning and TL after lunch
Friday: Magic Kingdom with O’Hana dinner reservation
How’d it turn out?
Checked in at AoA and jumped on a bus to Downtown Disney as fast as we could.
Arrived at Disney Quest at around 3pm and had a great time running around having fun. First time to try the Pirates of the Caribbean game…it was great. Then it was off to T-Rex where the atmosphere and food were great as expected. The rain caught us on the way to the bus, and soaked us, but it was over by arrival at the AoA and had some good pool time.
Monday breakfast was good, but was very disappointed at the lack of enthusiasm by the cast members who, a year ago would yell out when prompted by a phrase, but this year would not. Arrived at HS and had a great early day and mama Melrose was awesome. Shows and rides were great, but an intense storm came through and ended our day just as Fantasmic was going to start. BUT it didn’t even rain at AoA so had some unexpected pool time which was good.
After Tuesday’s breakfast at AoA we were off to EPCOT and we were there by 9am. I ran and got the group soaring fast passes while they got in line for test track. I have ridden the old test track a dozen times but this was the first time on the new test track. It was good but I just liked the old Queue and ride so much better. Still a good ride though. Mission space was still great and the soarin projection and 4-d smells were better than last year. There was no line for the Mickey and Minnie meet and greet, so everyone in the family got some great pictures. Had ADR at the coral reef at 9 so missed the fireworks for the first time but the food was good and the atmosphere even better. Loved having sharks, turtles, and rays swim by feet from me as we ate. Hit test track one last time before we left thanks to Magic Hours. The pool felt great on my feet at AoA when we got back and the kids played some.
Wednesday we were off to the AK. I have always loved the Lion King show for many reasons. Mainly though because my kids (now 17 and 13) have always just “lit up” while watching it. So it was a must see and I was just as amazed to see how much they still just smile and laugh during this show. But at rope drop I rushed off for Expedition Everest Fast passes while the group got in line for the safari. A friend of the family who is from our town drives for the safari and we were lucky enough to get him this trip. We had a lot of fun with him joking and asking a lot of questions. If you ever get Jimmy as a driver tell him hi from El Dorado. Two years in a row the Dinosaur ride was having some issues – entire middle section of the ride was completely dark and could not be seen at all. The group picture was great though. I just enjoy this park so much.
Thursday we were off by 8:30 to Blizzard Beach with plans to transfer over to Typhoon Lagoon after lunch. Enjoyed BB and as boarding or bus to transfer over a storm came through that just settled in over TL. We tried waiting it out, as it seemed as if it would move on but we finally gave in and returned to AoA where we found once again that not even a cloud had visited there. So we hit the pool running. We also had ESPN ADR for that night so around 8 we headed over to the board walk where it was still raining and had a good dinner at ESPN (even though I had no dog in the fight we joined in rooting on the spurs with the few spur fans there just because they were out numbered. It was a fun crowd).
Friday was our final park day. I didn’t mention that everyday had a 40% chance of rain in the afternoon, so we took our ponchos and purchased a locker to hold them just in case we needed them. No exception for this day. Got Space Mountain fast passes and went to check out fantasyland and rode everything over there. At Gaston’s we got a some beer look-a-like drink with I think pineapple and honey it was gooooooood. Then did the rest of the park (space mountain, laugh floor, stitch, race way, tea cups, haunted mansion, and then thunder mountain) we were in a 45-minute wait for Splash Mountain when lighting closed the ride down. We could see the rain coming so decided to get the ponchos and head off early to our 5pm O’Hana ADR (a quick jump on the monorail to the Polynesian). We arrived at 4:15 and spent some time looking around this hotel for hidden Mickey’s until our reservation time came up. Found enough to keep us happy. The dinner was great and what was even better is we watched it storm outside the entire time and just before we finished the rain stopped. We rode back to the MK did splash mountain, the pirates of the Caribbean had a dole whip and got great seats for the electric light parade castle show and fireworks. The new show on the castle was very very good, but I wish they would have kept some of the photos from the park like in the past.
Saturday morning the kids all were up and in the pool by 8am. The older of us slept in and woke up to pack the bags. We had a 10 am breakfast/lunch before checking out.
One personal note about the photopass+: this is the second time we have chosen to use this. If you are into character meals and ride pictures then it just seams like a no brainer to me. Ride pictures are soooooo expensive. In the past wherever I go it is a challenge to decide which pics we should or should not buy. With this option we get them all. We don’t miss a trick. Tower of Terror for example we got to ride over 6 times. The first picture we always just enjoy the ride for what it is and let the reactions be what they are but the other rides we do silly stuff like hug or all do the same gesture or face, and we get all those pics. So, for all our favorites where we ride more than once we get to have even more fun. If you pre-order and get the discount I really just love it. We never miss a chance for a photo op either. It takes no time as we pass a photographer to get a quick pic. And we always ask for magic pics too. One fun part for me is that as I run off to get fast passes for the group I’m always alone. As I pass photographers I get pics with them and sometime do silly stuff that know one knows about except me. It is always great when we get the pics in and look at them and the group gets a good laugh at my expense that they didn’t even know about. Overall we took over 900 pics on our phones and cameras and had over 200 from the park rides or photographers. I’ve uploaded ours to the photopass account and have been working on putting some Disney magic on some of the better ones.
Last but not least, I have been lucky. I lived near Orlando for about 5 years at one point and had Florida resident passes then, and other than that have visited WDW on many other occasions. I feel like I know the parks as good as a lot of people. This may have been my last trip for a while. I still feel like I haven’t seen or done it all. Experiencing O’Hana for the first time was special…I loved it. Don’t ever think you can do it all on one trip or feel like you have too. Enjoy what you can and do. Plan ahead a little.
