Trip Report Another one of Dray's live trip report attempts (How we learned to love 2008) Now with pictures!!

First off, kudos to you if you got my vague reference in the title. Here's a hint, Stanley Kubrick.

Ok, the cast contains the 4 usual suspects:

Me, Dave. 30 something. I like long romantic walks on the beach and cuddly kittens. Oh, and MMA, the History Channel and my family.

Amy, 30ish and a stay at home mom. She loves to craft stuff and Hocus Pocus.

Ashley, 15 years of age and she is infatuated with Monster High dolls and anime.

Justin, 14 and he also loves anime and video games.

Peanut, our bun in the oven and her interests include kicking momma in the ribs and being lugged around like luggage.

We flew in back on the 10th. We landed around 2:45 and grabbed our stuff from the claim area and headed to the Alamo area. Had a little hiccup there, we found out that Florida now charges some fee that's $2 per day, which explained the difference in the price on my itinerary and what the kiosk showed.

After a few minutes in line, the kind fellow at the counter squared us away and we headed to the garage to pick up our horseless carriage. We have 8 suitcases and a huge over the shoulder bag, so we always get a mid size suv. We prefer a Ford Escape, but the only one they had was taken. So, we grabbed an available Nissan Rogue, which barely fit our stuff. Lesson learned, from now on it will be a standard suv.

Anyways, we headed to grab a bite at McDonald's and then to check in at the Super 8 Orlando. We were extremely surprised at how nice the rooms were, and only at $59 a night. We headed to the outlet malls on International Drive and the one at Vineland. This was just a one night stay, so we headed back to the room and got some shut eye.

The next morning we packed up and drove over to the Royal Pacific Resort to check in and get our Express Passes. The room wasn't ready, so we parked and grabbed our Express Passes and walked to the parks. We picked up our renewed APs and off we went. I believe we hit Men In Black first and then headed to E.T. before taking in a viewing of the Horror Make Up show. We absolutely love that show.

We generally split up for about half of the day because the ladies like to partake in the thrill rides, while us two gentlemen like to take it easy and relax. We absolutely love Universal and we spent 3 days there. On Sunday we managed to take in two Make Up shows and during the final one, I was "that guy" that didn't help Mickey James when she was "dying". Even when you know what's coming it's still hilarious.

We checked out of the RPR this morning and checked into the French Quarter today. Our room wasn't ready but he told us we'd be in building 3, so that's cool. We didn't have any breakfast, so we high tailed it over here to the Studios and ate at Pizza Planet. Now we're standing in line to see Phineas and Ferb, and that's where I'm writing this little TR from.

One thing I must say is WHAT HAPPENED TO SEPTEMBER? Holy cow, is this NOT dead.....

It's very crowded. I would compare this to April. Too bad we were spoiled by having the Express Pass. Now back to third class with the rest of the peasants.

Also, if you're familiar with my style then you know I won't be adding pictures until we get home on the 23rd. Sorry folks, but I'm not good at using Photobucket on the go.

And one more thing.....my son and I have now maxed out on Men In Black. As a matter of fact, I've done it 3 times now.

......to be continued.
 

draybook

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Draybook, will you be taking some photos of the costumes? Is your family dressing up again this year for the Halloween parties? I enjoyed the photos from previous years.


Absolutely. I'm going as Troy Polamalu, as usual. My kids are some characters from Five Nights at Freddys. Not sure what that is, as I'm no longer as cool as I used to be, or so they tell me. Justin is a security officer from it and Ashley is the character Chica. Of course, she has two other costumes for the other two parties.
 

draybook

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Yeah, the park was nice and low until the party. I think that the pushed back holiday made Disney push back the party dates, which in turn had people pushing their vacations back. I say that because I've never seen a party sold out during September before. We're hoping that Sunday and next Tuesday are much lighter. Either way, we had a blast.

And on top of that, I met my first fellow Magic'er.
 
Last edited:

JennSmith

Well-Known Member
Yeah, the park was nice and low until the party. I think that the pushed back holiday made Disney push back the party dates, which in turn had people pushing their vacations back. I say that because I've never seen a party sold out during September before. We're hoping that Sunday and next Tuesday are much lighter. Either way, we had a blast.

And on top of that, I met first fellow Magic'er.
We will be at the party Tuesday too! Did I say that already? Oops if I did :)
 

draybook

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Last night was great, even with the crowds. We caught the second parade (packed), and squeezed in a ride on the Haunted Mansion before leaving at 12. Surprisingly, I was expecting all heck to break loose trying to leave, but it only took 4 minutes to return the locker key and we caught the first monorail leaving. And thanks to our wonderful parking spot, we were gone in a flash.....except for the 10 minute back up due to the Raceway construction.

We slept in (like you expected anything less)and headed off site for some grub to take with us to Animal Kingdom. We got here around 11:30 and headed to the Safari to use our Fastpasses. It was a great trip, as we saw 3 baby giraffes and their parents as well as the male lion out, basking in the sun.

Now the ladies are riding Everest while us two gents are in line for Dinosaur. Looking forward to our 5:30 ADR at Rainforest Cafe.
 

andie325

New Member
I am really enjoying your trip report so far... We arrive on the 22nd!
Loving the updates! When are you there till? We arrive Saturday and are going to MNSSHP on Tuesday 9/22.

We will be at the party Tuesday too! Did I say that already? Oops if I did :)

The 22nd will be our last day in the parks and our third and final Halloween party.

We will be at the 9/22 party as well! What are y'all dressing up as? We will be Princess Leia, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. :)
 

draybook

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I am really enjoying your trip report so far... We arrive on the 22nd!






We will be at the 9/22 party as well! What are y'all dressing up as? We will be Princess Leia, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. :)


I'll be Troy Polamalu again, but I'm not sure about the kids. My wife had a steam punk outfit that she was going to wear, but our bun in the oven had other plans. So, we have to go get some fabric or something tonight to alter it. I have a new idea for next year's parties, thanks to a CM that mistook my costume for another celebrity.
 

draybook

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Well, we enjoyed our time at AK and our delicious dinner at Rainforest Cafe, and then we headed to the MK to sneak in 90 minutes of fun. I'm at the Carousel of Progress and I was about to have the entire theater to myself and for some reason they stopped it from turning and dashed my dream.
 

disneygirl1

Well-Known Member
I am really enjoying your trip report so far... We arrive on the 22nd!






We will be at the 9/22 party as well! What are y'all dressing up as? We will be Princess Leia, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. :)

Nice, hopefully we will run into each other. We are not really dressing up as anything was afraid to pick anything b/c I wasn't sure how HOT it would be so we are in Halloween Mickey tie-dye shirts! I must say they turned out very cute! Say hi if you see us!
 

andie325

New Member
Nice, hopefully we will run into each other. We are not really dressing up as anything was afraid to pick anything b/c I wasn't sure how HOT it would be so we are in Halloween Mickey tie-dye shirts! I must say they turned out very cute! Say hi if you see us!

Will do!!! Hopefully the crowds won't be as big and it will be easy for us to say hello! :)
 

andie325

New Member
I just read over on another board that a lot of people that were at the party on Tuesday noticed that cast members were not ushering non-MNSSHP guests out of the park and that there were quite a few that did not have arm bands that stuck around for the parade, fireworks and show. Did you notice that draybook? I am wondering what is up with that?
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom