23-30 May trip report

Arrival day: still in progress but ok so far. We took an afternoon nonstop flight from our city to Sanford (30 mins away). Decent and quick flight. Rented our car which turned out to be significantly more expensive than we thought. Apparently Florida has a few extra fees and taxes than Texas and NC. We took the toll roads and it was very speedy and traffic free but cost about 3.75 or 4.00$. Not bad. We're still on target for our budget though. We are at the Hard Rock, everything is very nice. Very neat looking pool! We can see Universal out our window, to include the Hogwarts tower. We check into Shades of Green tomorrow. We will eat at The Palm tonight and polish the evening off at Pat O'Briens with a hurricane. But every silver lining has a cloud...


Brought some detergent for emergency clothes wash and it asploded in the wife's suitcase. I threw the clothes in the washer while she finished her fit.

I always travel prepared for all sorts of medical and general speedbumps, so I wasn't particularly as worried as she was. Ok signing off for now. Finishing laundry and getting ready for dinner. Will update either tomorrow AM or tonight.

 

[ILMdisneyfan]

Pre-update update.

Today (Monday) we plan on hitting Universal untill we can check in at Shades of Green. Then DAK.

 

[ILMdisneyfan]

Hey! We took Monday pretty as the wife had a nasty migraine but we checked into Shades and relaxed. It was stress free and very nice. We picked up our other travellers and I had a tough time falling asleep and staying asleep.

Woke up today (tues) early. Only thing open was breakfast so we got breakfast and went to wait for our others. They had a great special on park tickets so we went for that. So now that everything been bought and the vacation was ready to commence, the other couple's female counterpart demands we see the opening ceremony at MK. Now, it would truly be a different story if I didn't get to sleep untill way too late, but as far as I am concerned, the opening ceremony is for the birds. Well she takes too long getting ready and we end up missing it. No worries.

Being a man of habit and taste, I made a beeline for the Dole stand which was closed, much to my dismay. No whip floats right now! Other couple female (I see a trend forming) magically appears with anniversary buttons for them and just married buttons for us. We aren't really "just" married, but we *are* newlywed. Not that I'm complaining about celebrating but by nature, I am a very mild natured and private person while vacationing. So my fear of public recognition overrides any semblance of fun that button brings. Not to mention I just straight out dislike pins and buttons anyway.

Since the whip float was not an option, we went on Pirates, which is always a good choice. Of all the recent times we've been, the most we've waited is maybe 5-8 minutes. We basically walked onto the ride. It was nice and air conditioned inside it. They fixed the dunking fountain pirate, from what I can tell.

When we got out, it was raining so we figured that since we were already wet that we would enjoy some splash mountain. Boy was that nice. If I remember correctly, it's been recently refurbished. The interior of the ride smells like new waterproof paint. Everything looks a bit fresh. The laughin place fountains are working correctly but I think they took out the crows from before the jump, since I don't remember them.

After splash was Hall of Presidents, which looks great and is very nicely done. The animatronic for Obama worked fine. All the others worked well also. I was left with the wish that it was slightly longer. I liked the museum like preshow as well.

Then it was Colombia harbor house, we had chicken nuggets which weren't bad. The other couple had clam chowder and fish and chips and seemed to like them. Next up was haunted mansion which was packed. Then we (the girls) hit up small world while we guys wandered around fantasyland and then hung out at the base of the old gondola station in the shade. We got fastpasses for Peter pan. Then we hopped around and they rode teacups while I waited (don't do spinning rides).

Then to tomorrowland where we got on TTA. It seems like there's more pitch black segments in TTA now than before. After that we went to Buzz where I scored over 470k. On the way back to pan I really wanted to get a quick carousel of progress in, but I was tired and didn't feel good for some reason, so we used our passes and headed back for a nap.

We ate dinner at France in epcot, which was tasty but a bit pricey.

Well that was Tuesday. Today I'm supposed to get me some tonga toast and go to DHS.

 

[WondersOfLife]

I'm going to universal.

Dang universal. Why did you have to own E.T.?


Haha, if you go, you should check out dueling dragons, is it still open? Also, is the lost continent basically still in progress?

 

[Jerm]

Dang universal. Why did you have to own E.T.?


Haha, if you go, you should check out dueling dragons, is it still open? Also, is the lost continent basically still in progress?

Dueling Drangons is now the Dragon Challenge and I think is still closed till they do the soft opening of WWoHP.

 

[RoRo]

Dueling Drangons is now the Dragon Challenge and I think is still closed till they do the soft opening of WWoHP.

No, DD is still open,the queue for DC is ready to open at anytime, so is the rest of WWOHP.

Cast previews already happened but HPatFJ was not rideable. CM's were allowed through the queue.

Reports say that the land is amazing except DC is the downfall because the theming falters through the queue. The ride didn't change much, only the queue. No color change surprisingly.

 

[ILMdisneyfan]

Universal got botched due to a migraine from the DW. It looked like dragons was not running from our balcony at the hard rock.

Today (weds) was DHS. Got the ball rolling with ToT, dropped like 5 times, it was nice. Next we did the Great Movie Ride, had the cowboy tour. Then we kind of walked around for a bit before eating at Prime Time. I had the pot roast (amazing). After, we did the back lot tour. Today was filled
with wait times, not
much got accomplished. The DW bought sone glass stuff so I hung out with a nice irish lady while the wife and friends went on RnR with a fastpass. Dinner was the spirit of aloha luau, which was fun. The food was relatively like what you get at hoop de doo. Chicken and ribs, veggies (broc, carrots, green beans), and a sweetish fried rice. Everything was very nice but all the food was a bit on the sweet side.

Speaking of sweet side, for breakfast there was Tonga Toast. It was amazing and will need to be eaten regularly.

 

[WondersOfLife]

Universal got botched due to a migraine from the DW. It looked like dragons was not running from our balcony at the hard rock.

Today (weds) was DHS. Got the ball rolling with ToT, dropped like 5 times, it was nice. Next we did the Great Movie Ride, had the cowboy tour. Then we kind of walked around for a bit before eating at Prime Time. I had the pot roast (amazing). After, we did the back lot tour. Today was filled
with wait times, not
much got accomplished. The DW bought sone glass stuff so I hung out with a nice irish lady while the wife and friends went on RnR with a fastpass. Dinner was the spirit of aloha luau, which was fun. The food was relatively like what you get at hoop de doo. Chicken and ribs, veggies (broc, carrots, green beans), and a sweetish fried rice. Everything was very nice but all the food was a bit on the sweet side.

Speaking of sweet side, for breakfast there was Tonga Toast. It was amazing and will need to be eaten regularly.

aww, you didn't go to the Sci-Fi din-in? lol! I love that place!

If you go to epcot, i'd say the cheapest (yet good) food is Electric Umbrella! You know, Hamburgers, Hotdogs, ect. If not, I really suggest any of the buffets at the World Showcase!


-WondersOfLife


The last original pavilion. :king:

 

[blackthidot]

Good stuff...you gonna have some pics for us when you get back?

 

[ILMdisneyfan]

Thursday - epcot

Great day! Rode all in FW but Energy and Mission Space. Vacation partner couple (i called them the wonder twins because they got very annoying for making us wait in lines to see characters and get pics with them. I'm talking hours of waiting in character lines) didn't want to go on energy and I refuse to go on space. Cue in lots of character lines, lots of waiting around for the wonder twins, and lots of me being frustrated. Ate at 9 dragons, which was amazing. Ate brats and beer at Germany which was great. Had to scram early to avoid the insane crowds at close.

Friday - Universal

I don't like universal. I only did a few rides and shows. T2, Horror makeup, Shrek, and Disaster were the ones I enjoyed. Simpsons nearly killed me from motion sickness, and I was a little cautious of Mummy, so didn't go on it. We split up me going on my own while wife and wonder twins did islands, since i don't like rollercoasters. I went to Citywalk and enjoyed myself thoroughly. Did Blue Man after. Was a great great show.

Saturday - DAK

I'm not a big fan of DAK either. Always too hot when I go. Twins forced us to wait while they got in photo ops with every character they came across like normal. Did Everest (yeti is either slow moving or not at all with a lot of strobes), Dinosaur (scarier than I remember), and Bug's Life. Then we went to the hotel and the week caught up to me and I crashed hard. Woke up to twins freaking out because it was raining torrentially. After rain subsided, they went to park while I slept and packed. Wonder Twins cried at Wishes fireworks. I laughed when my wife told me that. They kept her from going on Space Mountain. She forced them to go on Carousel of Progress (gotta love her for that, it's our favorite ride - and the twin's least favorite).

Overall a very very good trip, with the exception of the wonder twins' silliness. I don't think we'll be vacationing with them in the future.

 

[ILMdisneyfan]

Oh wow that was amazing it actually posted! that was my 3rd attempt, i kept timing out and my work was lost. I had a novel posted. I'll elaborate on the days one at a time shortly, then I'll get to posting pics. Still have a bunch of unpacking and relaxing to do.

 

[ILMdisneyfan]

aww, you didn't go to the Sci-Fi din-in? lol! I love that place!

If you go to epcot, i'd say the cheapest (yet good) food is Electric Umbrella! You know, Hamburgers, Hotdogs, ect. If not, I really suggest any of the buffets at the World Showcase!

Sorry for the lag in posting replies, guys! EPCOT is one of my favorite parks for food, but also one of the most difficult to get ADR's for.

We're going again for a quick weekend w/ my parents in August and staying at the Contemporary. Me and the Mrs. aren't really fond of buffet style foods with some exceptions. We normally grab something at counter service and eat quickly. The beer and brats in EPCOT were outstanding, but me and the male half of the couple were already full from 9 Dragons! We ate them anyway and decided that we were going to hop to Norway on our way out to get some pastries but ended up scratching that since when we got to Norway we didn't know if we could even breathe with how full we were.

As for pictures, I have a bunch of them but I don't know how to get them loaded up on here like some of the forum pro's have!

 

[WondersOfLife]

Sorry for the lag in posting replies, guys! EPCOT is one of my favorite parks for food, but also one of the most difficult to get ADR's for.

Let's not forget about that new pizza place that opened up in Italy.


-WondersOfLife


The last original pavilion. :king: