5/15 - 5/24/2003 WDW Trip Report

DZannini · May 24, 2003

My wife and I were there at the same time as you. I was curious when you slept after the drive down. Sounds like you went to the parks on Friday morning after driving all night long.

BTW sorry about sending you to the TTC for the DD bus.

LOL

:wave:

marypopmom · May 25, 2003

Thanks for sharing your terrifc trip report with us. Looks like you are having lots of magic and great memories. You great details help to make us feel like we are there too, oh I wish I was right now:lol: but we will have to wait until aug, sigh.

CamCodey · May 26, 2003

IBM "Thinking of You" Postcard

Hi!

We made it home safe and sound!

I will post Friday & Saturday's Trip Reports very soon, but in the meantime visit:

http://204.146.52.215/epcot1.nsf/postcards/1D570E?OpenDocument&F2E37B

to see a pic of our family at Epcot (it is only good for 30 days).

Have a great day!

antoinebusby · May 26, 2003

CamCodey (Deb)

You keep referring to "checking-in". What do you mean by that?

CamCodey · May 26, 2003

Originally posted by DZannini
My wife and I were there at the same time as you. I was curious when you slept after the drive down. Sounds like you went to the parks on Friday morning after driving all night long.

BTW sorry about sending you to the TTC for the DD bus.

LOL

:wave:

So it was You!

Mel & I took turns sleeping while the other drove all throughout the night. When we started to get tired after 2-3 hours we would wake the other. We really didn't get any "real" sleep. DH went to bed around 9 pm and I about 10 pm, or so. The next morning we woke around 6:30 and when we checked in at OKW dh & I took about an hour nap before heading back to the parks until 1 am (E-Ride Night at MK). That was the only day we napped the whole week. The next morning was the only day we slept in....until 8 am, that is!! :lol:

Originally posted by Stormhammer22
What was the crowd size like during your stay?? I'm going down on the 29th - June 2nd.

The crowds were heavier than we've experienced during our trips in Sept/Oct, but not totally unbearable. The longest lines we saw were for 1+ hours...TT and ToT. We Fast Passed both of those, but beware...the ToT Fast Pass only gets you to the room, you still have to go through the basement with everyone else. Still only about a 20 min wait. During Sept/Oct we never saw any lines longer than 30 min.

If there are any more questions or comments, they are welcome. I'm glad you all are enjoying this Trip Report. I enjoy reading all of your Reports, too! :sohappy: We're talking about when to plan our next trip to WDW!! DH enjoyed using the AP's so much we will probably do stay 2 times in one year again!! :sohappy: :sohappy: :sohappy:

CamCodey · May 26, 2003

Re: CamCodey (Deb)

Originally posted by antoinebusby
You keep referring to "checking-in". What do you mean by that?

We had to check-in on Friday, May 16th at the Contemporary for one night and then had to check-in at OKW for our stay from Saturday, May 17th to Saturday, May 24th. The only other times are when we might have checked-in at the podium for our PS's. Is that what I was referring to?

ACK! It's only 60 degrees here in PA!! :cry:

I miss the 80's and 90's!! It only looks to be in the 70's until Thursday. It's cold, rainy, and miserable with no sun in sight. I want my WDW back! (sorry to vent, but I just HAD to!) :zipit:

Have a super day no matter where you are!

CamCodey · May 26, 2003

Re: "Check-in"

Originally posted by antoinebusby
You keep referring to "checking-in". What do you mean by that?

Is this the quote you're referring to? :lol:

Originally posted by CamCodey
After Animal Kingdom closed we were hoping to go to Downtown Disney, but a large storm with lots of heavy rain, thunder & lightning moved in for the rest of the evening. So that’s how I was finally able to “check-in”! J It’s now 9 pm and we’re tucking the boys in for an early morning. I hope to give an update another time before heading for home (we decided to stay until Saturday am instead of Friday pm since the 17 hour drive wasn’t as bad as we expected!) T.T.F.N.!!

I have no idea what I was referring to as "check-in" :brick: You have to remember that I'm typing this in word on our laptop and then copying and pasting to here and on a full day at the parks with little sleep.

If I go back and read my notes again I bet there are a few things that even I have no idea what I'm talking about! :lol:

Thanks for reading these so thoroughly tho, it was actually a test!

antoinebusby · May 26, 2003

LOL!

Yeah, you hit it right on the head, Deb. I am just really slow today.

CamCodey · May 26, 2003

DAY 8 - Friday, May 23rd

Today we headed over to MGM-Studios for our second Star Wars Weekend experience. We arrived around 8:20 with many others. Rain was threatening this morning and I was wondering if we should have brought along our big golf umbrella today. We decided on the middle line to enter the park and was wondering if this was a wise decision since it wasn’t under cover. In a little while we saw Storm Troopers starting their patrol on the roof to our entrance to MGM. We had a good view of them from there and the rain held off. NOTE: They apparently only do this for the 9 am entrances, so the Early Entry guests staying on property who enter at 8 am on the Saturday Early Entry day don’t get to see it (like we did the previous Sat am). Have those video cameras ready, because the Storm Troopers say some great dialogue while you‘re waiting in line (there is a “warp” sound before and after their dialogue). We were left in at about 8:45 am and were able to go to the ropes at Mickey’s of Hollywood on Hollywood Boulevard. Be to the far left if you are heading for autographs and note that you may enter through Mickey’s of Hollywood. With the threatening rain we were told that Warwick Davis (Wicket the Ewok from Return of the JedI) and Andy Secombe (Watto from I & II) would be signing at the Ewok Village and ABC Theatre respectively, instead of the outside booths located East of Echo Lake where the stars signed last weekend. Dh and Conner headed for Warwick Davis while I took Cameron & Codey to get wristbands with Andy Secombe. We only spent about 30 minutes or so in line and Cameron & I were the only ones to receive wristbands. (I asked the CM’s about our family being separated and asked if we only need wristbands for the # of autographs we desired…we wanted one for our scrapbook and the other would be on the free black & white photo of the actor, and our family could still be in a pic with the star…so only two of us received wristbands. That way someone else would receive one! J ) We met up with dh and signed up Cameron & Codey for the JedI Mind Challenge. The boys were going to try out for the JedI Training Academy at 10:15, but it was cancelled because some light rain started to fall. We rode Star Tours and looked for some new characters. I went to the Star Wars Information Desk and asked to look at a sheet of the expected times for the Star Wars characters to appear. I copied down the times and places for the characters to appear. We thought we only needed to see more, but found that we needed yet to see Darth Maul, Chewbacca, Ewoks, Boba Fett, Darth Vader, Kit Fisto, Shaak Ti, Jawa, Greedo, Gamorrean Guard, Admiral Akbar, R2-D2 & the Storm Troopers. (NOTE: Some of the times were changed slightly so be sure to double check with Cms). Since it was raining a little Darth Maul & Queen Amidalla were moved to the exit of Sounds Dangerous at Golden Age Souveniers. While there we purchased this weekend’s Star Wars pins for each of the boys and purchased a Star Wars Weekends logo t-shirt for Codey. Hopefully we’ll be able to purchase the remaining 6 pins from the next 3 weekends somehow! J Conner was checking out the face painting and wanted to get his done, but we told him maybe later in the day. The rain cleared just in time for the Star Wars Celebrity Motorcade. After the parade I took Cameron & Codey to register for Mind Challenge and while Mel was putting the lens cap on the video camera Conner disappeared!! For any of you who’ve seen a parade you know the mass of people that appear after a parade! We went in different directions & I asked a CM teacher to keep a lookout. When I got back Mel was holding Conner. It turns out that Conner really wanted to get his face painted!! :lol: Cameron found him perched on the chair at the face painting stand while the CM working there was looking around for a nod from a parent to start his artwork on Conner!! :lol: The rainclouds left and we were left with partly cloudy skies with low humidity for the rest of the day. We went back to the Star Wars Registration table and found that Conner could participate since there were only 19 of 20 children registered. The boys had a great time and Cameron & Conner somehow made it to the semi-finals! We sought a new Star Wars character and then at 12:20 went in line to meet Warwick Davis. We were in line for 30 minutes and had a great time with him. He was honored to be in our autograph book & had a good time glancing through it. We headed to see Andy Secombe and got to the line at 1 pm, but was told that his autograph session finished quickly. We were told to try & come back for the 3pm signing. I was a little upset about it, but what could we do? We spent another 20 min. in line to see Lilo & Stitch at The Magic of Disney Animation. Then we wondered a little and found Hercules, Meg & other characters we’d already seen on New York Street. Then Mel took Codey & Conner to see Playhouse on Disney at 2 pm and Cameron & I went to the 2:10 Millionaire show. We met at the Sorcerer’s Hat and it was 2:45 so I asked about being able to see Mr. Secombe. We were told that they would not honor our 12 pm wristbands at the 3 pm signing. OK…this time I kind of blew up a little (the waiting in line all day & fact that I had not eaten since 7 am was getting to me, I guess). They said to try back later & maybe we could see him after the 3 pm people did. We went for a bite to eat on Sunset Boulevard. I ordered food from Catalina Eddie’s, Rosie’s All-American Café AND Toluca Legs Turkey Co. for our family! :lol: We started to head back to the Star Tours area to catch some more characters and now that I had some food in my belly & came to my senses I needed to go to the CM’s at Andy Secombe’s area to apologize for my outburst. It was 3:30 pm and we were told that we could see Mr. Secombe right away without any wait. Meeting him was a lot of fun. We spent most of the rest of the day in the Star Tours area getting the rest of the autographs. When Conner saw the Tusken Raiders he would say, “Woo, woo, woo!!!” Boy was he surprised when they grunted very loudly back to him! :lol: No other costumed character spoke to him before!! :lol: Scared him nearly to death!! After all of the autographs were gotten we rode on a few attractions. We saw Muppet Vision and then headed over to ToT for our Fast Passes at 5 pm. Conner had fallen asleep, so it was just Cameron, Codey & I. We bypassed the 1 hour + line that was all the way to the gate and went right to the lobby to enter the room. After the room, though, we had to go through the basement lines. It wasn’t too bad, though…about 25 minutes. The boys tried out for the last JedI Training Academy of the day and Conner was picked! Cameron was really upset because everyone around him was chosen, but tears of sadness soon turned to tears of laughter. Conner was quite the character on stage! It took him several tries to figure out how to activate his light saber, but then he did great. I won’t ruin the surprise, but they got to try out their skills individually! It was lots of fun and again, everyone who participated received a gift. The Star Wars festivities ended with the Star Wars Weekends Hyperspace Hoopla. I wish I had remembered to put in another video tape, because it was a great ending, but we’d run out of time on the camera. We all enjoyed ice cream treats and some resting time on Sunset Boulevard. It was time to head back to our villa. We had a lot of packing to do for our return trip home the next day & I needed to finish the laundry.

I'll have to hold you all in suspense to see how the end of our trip was until tomorrow. TTFN

troberts1 · Jun 22, 2003

We were there the same week,did you know that Micheal Jackson was at MK on Monday.I dont care for him but other people went crazy.

Disneyanna0521 · Jun 22, 2003

please post pics!!!!!!!

CamCodey · Jun 22, 2003

Sorry, no pics available now

Thanks for asking, but I didn't use a digital & didn't get them put on a disc this time. Maybe sometime I'll be able to borrow someone's scanner to post at a later time.

Disneyanna0521 · Jun 22, 2003

5/15 - 5/24/2003 WDW Trip Report

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