A different kind of Disney trip - February 2013

Hi everyone!! I"m back for another trip report. This one from February 3-10, 2013. We arrived in Orlando on the 1st, but went to Universal on the 1st-2nd which was a lot of fun. I prefer Disney though! :) This trip was a lot different than some of the past trips mainly due to: a lot more solo time for me, realizing that others don't share the same love of Disney I do, and really solidifying that I want to work for this company.

Day 1: February 3, 2013 - Magic Kingdom

We arrived to Bay Lake Tower around 11 and checked in and then before you know it, we were on our way over to the Magic Kingdom. It was a lot more crowed than I expected, but I really didn’t care since I was FINALLY in the Magic Kingdom! We made our way up Main Street and I took in all the sights and sounds, including Move It Shake It Celebrate It, which was up at the hub.

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Of course the first thing we were going to do is to go check out the new Fantasyland. Not gonna lie, I was a little disappointed with it at first. It wasn’t what I was expecting at all. Although I do think the wall to wall people back there is what killed it for me. Ariel’s Undersea Adventure was closed, so we explored Gaston’s Tavern and we looked in the shop there. No sign of Gaston though.

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We made our way over to Adventureland to ride Pirates, which was great as always! I really enjoyed the addition of the Mermaids. We also rode the Jungle Cruise and it might have been one of my favorite experiences on that ride ever. We had skipped Diana and she was hysterical! Job well done to her. I definitely found a new love for the Jungle Cruise this trip, as I rode it about four times over the course of the week. After spending sometime in Adventureland we made our way into Frontierland and made it into the Country Bear Jamboree just before the doors opened! It was the first time I saw the show in years. I enjoyed it, but I did find myself bored at times. It’s a nice place to go if you want to relax and get a break from the heat.

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We ventured into Liberty Square and rode the Haunted Mansion, which was great! I love that ride so much! I still get spooked out in parts of it. After riding Haunted Mansion, we went into Fantasyland only to discover that all of the ride waits were at least 45 minutes long. In my opinion none of the rides in Fantasyland are worth a 45 minute wait. We saw Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum (who I haven’t seen in years) and the White Rabbit outside the Mad Tea Party so we hopped in line for each of them.

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disneyfan1995

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After meeting with some of our friends from Alice in Wonderland, we made our way into Tomorrowland to ride Buzz. Some very nice person gave me two fastpasses, so I took my brother on the ride with me. I hit one of the 100,000 point targets in the first room twice, but didn’t have too much luck after that. While we were waiting for my parents and sister to ride Buzz (they did the standby line), my brother and I went up towards Main Street to see the parade although my camera died, which was a bummer. We met back up with my parents and sister and all rode buzz again. Both my mom and I maxed out our scores before the Zurg room, so that was super exciting!

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After riding Buzz, we made our way back to Bay Lake Tower for an afternoon break. We would be returning to the Magic Kingdom later in the evening for a much anticipated dinner at Be Our Guest and I would be doing the extra magic evening hours.

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disneyfan1995

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We returned to the Magic Kingdom a few hours later for our reservations at Be Our Guest! We snagged some fastpasses for Ariel’s Undersea Adventure for after dinner. Just let me say that getting into BOG was a complete mess. Our reservation was for 7:15 and I don’t think we were seated until about 8:00. I understand that restaurants get behind and everything, but considering I was starving I was really irritated. Once it was time to be seated, we walked through the Beast’s castle and to our table which was located in the ballroom. The theming in here was beautiful. I felt that I was in the Beauty and the Beast movie! It was really neat. I also liked the West Wing area and how they announced the Beast’s entrance every time he came back out for a meet and greet. Buffy was our server and she was lovely. I ordered the strip steak for my entree, and it was just okay. I liked the fries though! :) Unfortunately, we were unable to get the grey stuff since we weren’t celebrating anything. That really irritated me considering I was REALLY looking forward to trying it. Oh well.

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After we finished up dinner, we headed into the Beast’s library to meet the Beast. He was really interactive which was a lot of fun. My younger sister was dressed up as Belle so he danced with her, which was really cute. We said goodbye to the Beast and then headed over to Ariel’s Undersea Adventure. It was nice to just be able to jump onto this ride instead of waiting in the queue. The Ursula AA was breathtaking. I just loved everything about it.

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After riding Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, I said goodbye to my family and explored the park on my own since they were offering evening extra magic hours. I went over to Storybook Circus and took a spin on Dumbo. It was great especially considering I hadn’t ridden the ride since I was about eight years old (and I’m seventeen now). It brought back a lot of fun memories of being a child. After riding Dumbo, I decided to head over to Pete’s Silly Sideshow to visit some of my favorite Disney friends. I got to meet Goofy, Donald, Daisy, and Minnie without waiting at all. It was great!! My one complaint is that the lighting in there (especially with Donald) is TERRIBLE. Also, kind of embarrassing how the only charactesr taller than me at WDW are Goofy, Baloo, Woody, Ferb, and Wreck it Ralph.

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disneyfan1995

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After saying goodbye to some of my Disney friends, I headed over to Tomorrowland and rode on the TTA for the first time ever. It was a nice and relaxing ride through Tomorrowland! I also got to see Space Mountain with the lights on, which was neat. I would never want to ride it with the lights on, though. I’d be too scared! After a stroll on the TTA, I crossed into Frontierland and took a spin on Big Thunder Mountain. I had a lot of fun and was really excited to ride it especially since it was closed when I went with my school in 2012. It would have been great if Splash was also open, but it wasn’t :(.
After BTMR I headed over into Adventureland to ride Pirates once more. It is definitely one of my favorite rides ever. It just never gets old!! It was also nice to basically get the boat to myself.

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After Pirates, I waited a whopping 0 minutes for the Jungle Cruise. It was just me and two other people on our boat. I can’t remember our skipper’s name from this time around, but she was really funny. As I said before, I found a new appreciation for the Jungle Cruise this trip.
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After Jungle Cruise, I decided it was time to make my way out of the park since we were going to Epcot the following day. I strolled down Main Street and took in all the lights and said goodnight to the Magic Kingdom. It was an excellent first day in Disney World!

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Up Next: The joys of Epcot.
 

disneyfan1995

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2: February 4, 2013 - Epcot

Epcot day! You know what Epcot day means? Early wake up, no lunch, and a lot of walking in the heat. So much fun, right? Wrong

My family always likes to book the princess breakfast at Akershus in Norway. The only thing I like about booking this breakfast is that we get into the park before opening. That means I can take pictures of Spaceship earth and some of the pavilions in World Showcase without any people in them.

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Personally, I am not a fan of this breakfast at all. I’m not a big breakfast person to begin with, but none of the food is really like great or anything. I would much prefer a breakfast at Kona Cafe or Ohana since they have Mickey waffles, which are my favorite!! The princess interaction is fun though. After our breakfast we made our way back into Future World to check out the new Test Track. I didn’t really think it was all that great to be honest. The whole design your own car process was the most unorganized thing ever and I was clueless with what to do when I got up to board the ride vehicles. I tapped my card, but I don’t think it ever registered. I did single rider so I was stuck with some family that was less than pleased to not have the car to themselves, which was a little rude, but whatever. After riding Test Track I met back up with my family and we went over to Ellen’s Universe of Energy since we had an hour to kill until our fastpasses for Test Track. This ride seriously needs an upgrade. I think some of it is a little irrelevant now, but it was somewhat interesting since some of the topics discussed in this ride were topics of discussion in my AP Environmental Science class this year, but other than that I was bored out of my mind.

After visiting with Ellen, we headed back over for another ride on Test Track. I enjoyed it much more the second time around since I was with my family. I still thought the whole design your own car was unorganized and unnecessary. Once were finished testing out our newly designed cars, we headed over to the other side of Future World to go pay Nemo a visit. Thankfully, it was a walk on! Not for nothing, but I would never actually wait longer than 10 minutes for this ride. I just don’t think it’s worth a long wait. We took some time to explore the Seas once we disembarked our clammobile.

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disneyfan1995

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Once we finished up in the Seas we decided it was time to begin our journey around the world. We started in Canada since we wanted to finish in Mexico because we had a dinner scheduled at La Hacienda. World Showcase always makes me cranky for some reason. I think it’s because I’m tired from being up so early for the princess breakfast and then I have to walk 3 miles in World Showcase. In my opinion, the best way to do Epcot is to do one day in Future World and then spend another day in World Showcase. That way nothing is rushed and you can fully enjoy the park.
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My family always likes to take a picture of my siblings and I in each country, which is always quite the challenge toward the end of our journey around the world. We started off on a high note this time, which was good. I was starting to get a little cranky since I was hungry, but we stopped in the UK to visit Pooh/Tigger and Mary Poppins which was fun!! We ate “lunch” in France, which I was not pleased with. I’m a really picky eater, so I wound up eating a baguette for lunch. Needless to say I was a little cranky and miserable for a while.
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My mood cheered up a little bit once we hit Morocco though! We looked around in the shops and I took idiotic selfies with the various hats that they sell.

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disneyfan1995

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Up next was Japan which was fun. I was really upset that Miyouki was not doing her candy show. I saw her a couple trips ago and I thought it was really neat she could make art out of candy. We stopped in the American Adventure to listen to the Voices of Liberty, who were amazing by the way, and to see the American Adventure show. It was a nice way to relax and unwind for a half an hour while learning about our country’s history at the same time. I think the scenery/AA’s in this show are great. I would love to take the Backstage Magic tour which includes a stop here to show how the animation is done here.

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After learning about the history of our nation, we headed into Italy and stopped for a gelati which was just great. It was very refreshing on a day that was as hot as it was. We made our way into Germany and stopped for a German pretzel which was also very tasty. I was in a much better mood by this point.. see food makes everything better.. and was ready to conquer China.

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We hung out in China for a little bit and explored the inside of the temple. We saw the tomb guards statutes which were neat! Once we were finished exploring the temple, we headed over for a Norwegian boat ride on Maelstrom. The wait was about 15 minutes, which wasn’t too bad. It was nearing time for our dinner reservation at La Hacienda, but we still had a little bit of time to kill, so we headed over to Mexico to visit Donald and to take a spin on the boat ride there.

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Then came the moment I had been waiting for all day... dinner! I was starving so it was really exciting to sit down in the restaurant and eat. We were given a window seat, which had a lovely view of the World Showcase lagoon. I think it would be great to sit here and watch Illuminations... maybe next time!! I got the chicken for my entree and it was great! The sauce that it was in was very sweet, which I enjoyed a lot!

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After dinner we decided to make our way out of the park. There was no way we could hang in for Illuminations, but we did get to see Wishes from our room, so there’s a plus!!

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Up next: A trip through the movies.
 

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