Bayoutinkbelle's Oct. 20-29 report with pics!

It took me a week to get everything together, but here it is. Enjoy!

Oct. 20
Got a very late start leaving town because an ATM machine ate my debit card. :brick: Talk about putting me into a panic! I had to scramble with my bank to straighten out the mess, explain that I did not cancel the card (it had been giving me fits for weeks, but bank officials kept telling me nothing was wrong) and to get another one issued instantly. This was done, but put me about 90 minutes behind schedule. Once I took my dog to be boarded, picked up friend LeCrete and wrapped all minor details, it was almost 1 p.m. before we hit
the road.

The trip was uneventful, just long stretches of road. The Florida Highway Patrol was out in full force on I-75.

We arrived at Pop Century around 2 a.m. No problem checking in that late, right? Wrong! The Magical Express had arrived just before we did. Oh, and by the way, we took the 429 toll road into Western Way for the first time. Several times I wondered if it was a wise decision since it was pitch dark and I saw maybe three cars on the road. But it did dump us right into WDW. I highly recommend it!

We got to our room in Building 3 of the 50s around 2:30. Since we were meeting some friends from Texas, Kim and Bob, later that morning (10 a.m.) at Universal, we hit the sack.

Here's our building and here's what we saw from our hotel room. Unfinished buildings!

 

[bayoutinkbelle]

Oct. 21:
We slept a little late and finally met Kim and Bob at the globe outside the Studios around 10:30 a.m. They flew in the night before and stayed at the Royal Pacific at Universal.

Kim is as crafty as they come, so she had the foresight to make their hotel reservation for four people. This allowed us all to use hotel keys as Express Passes at the Universal attractions. Since the park was packed on Saturday, this was a life saver!

We attended the Horror Make-up Show and LeCrete was picked to be the victim. This was perfect, since she hadn't seen the show before and the three of us had. We laughed from the audience.

For those who have seen the show before, you know that the hosts gently pick on a young child at some point. Well, this show the kid in question started to cry when he was picked. You could tell the hosts felt really bad about it, and the audience did a sympathetic "ah." The hosts smoothly picked out another -- older -- kid in the audience and went on with the show.

Hours later, we headed out of Islands of Aventure to news that Halloween Horror Nights was sold out. The crowds coming into the park were unbelievable! It was a mad house!! It took us an hour to drive back to Pop so we could freshen up and pick up Kim and Bob for a dinner at Tony Roma's on I-Drive.

Oct. 22:
Back to Universal for another day and a night at Halloween Horror Nights. We started our day around 11:30 a.m. with an early lunch at Bubba Gump's since LeCrete adores shrimp. She was not disappointed. I was though. I had the fried chicken with mashed potatoes and corn. I didn't care for the batter on the chicken or the potatoes. :hurl:

The day was hot and muggy, much like the day before. We hit Spider-Man after lunch and then took two turns on The Hulk. Unlike Saturday, the lines were almost non-existent on Sunday. :sohappy:

Later, I alone rode Dudley Do-Right's Rip Saw Falls because the other three were too chicken. Yes, I got wet. And yes, the trio used my camera to take a shot of me screaming down the falls. I came down without getting soaked BUT ... some duffus at the water cannons let me have it full in the face while riding around to unload. Irritating at first, but it all turned out good because while the others complained about how hot it was, I was very cool.

We kept it up until around 5 p.m., when we went over to The Mummy area to await the official start of HHN. Again, Kim was on the ball and arranged a RIP tour for us. I'm telling ya, if you want to do HHN and not deal with the drunks and crowds, book a tour. It was worth every single penny. Our tour guide - Seth on the name tag, though the "S" was crossed out and a "D" was written -- was awesome. The tour, which started at 7 and ended at 11, allowed us to bypass even the express lines and get into every house and some rides. We rode The Mummy twice in a row, went to Jaws and MIB. At least one house had a 75-minute wait and we walked by every single one of those people and went straight inside. The tour also included front-row center seats at the Bill and Ted show, which was hilarious.

At our last house, we saw a guy get tazered as he was running from security and Orlando PD. I have no idea what transpired before we saw all the cops running, but I think it was par for the course that night. Of course, everyone in line wanted to watch and a HHN employee started yelling, "This is not part of the attraction!"

We said our goodbyes to Kim and Bob after exiting the park. They had flown in only for the weekend. We had so much fun that I know we'll have to do WDW together sometime soon. They're nuts for WDW, too.

I picked up my car from valet (free with the tour. I had learned my lesson well after my last trip to Universal and the $1,500 in vandalism damage to my car) and we returned to Pop after picking up some McD goodies.

Here's LeCrete enjoying her time on stage:

 

[bayoutinkbelle]

Oct. 23:
We sleep until just after 9 a.m. The weather has taken a decidely cooler turn. After a too-expensive ham and cheese omelet in the Pop food court (good, though), we head to the buses to go to Animal Kingdom. LeCrete had not been on Expedition Everest and I couldn't wait to share it with her. Alas, the line was way too long, so we got Fast Passes to return between 4:05 and 5.

So, we went to ITTBAB, Pagnini Trail, the Safari and Conservation Station before going to Tusker House for lunch. Yummy, as always (and it saddens me that that could be the last time I eat there).

After lunch, it was nearly 3:30. We headed over to EE to let lunch settle and do some people watching. It was very amusing to sit there and listen to people coming off the ride. Most of them were laughing about how great it was. I did see one kid who looked terrified.

By a stroke of good fortune, we got put in the front row for our ride. Sweet!! Of course, LeCrete loved the ride. The backward portion in the dark always gets me laughing uncontrollably because it tickles my tummy soooooo much. It's a serious thrill for me and I love it. The Yeti looked even more impressive from the front row, if that's possible. LeCrete spent a lot of time laughing and yelling, but she screamed at the Yeti.

We saw a lot of people walking around with Dream Fast Passes around their necks. I did spot a Dream Squad once or twice, but didn't see anything being awarded. They were interacting with the guests a lot.

After EE, we headed to MGM and straight to Tower of Terror. The standby line was 30 minutes. Not bad, I thought. So we started to head that way when a guy approached us with two FP he was giving away. Many thanks to you, mysterious stranger! We walked right onto the ride.

Had an odd experience while waiting to board the elevator, though. We were in the last two spots on row 6. A girl was in the first spot. The castmember started his instructions and then stopped, bent down to pick up an empty water bottle. He held it up to the girl (probably around 18 years old) and asked her if it was hers. She said no. The castmember said, "Then you'd let me trip over it" or something every close to that. He stared her down after she retorted that he already thought she put it there, no matter what she would say. Then he said, "Whatever" and started his spiel again. His attitude from the beginning was rude and I don't blame the girl for having a bit of attitude back at him. She seemed to brush it off, though.

After a great ride, we went next door to Rock 'n Roller Coaster. We waited about 20 minutes to ride. Great, as always. But when the ride was over and we were headed down the home stretch into the turn to unload, our car just stopped. We stayed still for at least a minute. No announcement, no more music. Just some concert crowd noise from the speakers. Sitting there, we could hear and feel the next car going on the ride. We moved up a few feet
and then stopped again for under a minute.

We got wrist bands for EMH and then got some ice cream (chocolate and strawberry scoops for me, thanks! Butter pecan for LeCrete.) While we're waiting for our ice cream, we notice a sky writer plane above the park. We spent the next 15 minutes watching and guessing what he was writing. The answer? "Turn to Jesus." I'm not sure if it was directed to us Mouse
worshippers or the heathens at HHN though. Probably both groups. Anyway, it didn't stay up long enough to really get a good look.

Since it was pressing 7 p.m., we decided to go back to our hotel and investigate a movie. LeCrete still hadn't seen Pirates 2 (can you believe it??!!) so I insisted we go since it was playing. Of course, we missed it since the features were earlier that day. So we ordered pizza from Pop and settled in for a night of TV and an early bed time.

Which brings me to this: The pizza at Pop is nasty. Or, at least the one that we had was. We narrowed it down to the cheese. It just wasn't right. I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to pizza, but this was so bad that it wasn't edible. We vowed not to eat Pop pizza again.

More pics! The EE one actually is from this past summer, but I still like it.

 

[bayoutinkbelle]

Oct. 24:
It's back over to MGM for some shopping, lots of window shopping and lunch at Sci-fi. Before lunch and between the shopping, we managed to squeeze in The Muppets.

I checked in at the Sci-fi desk and we sat down outside to wait for our turns to be "parked." Then we had fun watching others walk up to the menu and decide to walk in and eat. It wasn't happening. Most people left after being told it was at least an hour wait.

Then, Mary came out to call our party. Mary may need a vacation herself because her Sci-fi spiel was so tired and monotone that it was funny. Absolutely no life to it at all. Kinda makes me wonder if the Body Snatchers got her. :lookaroun

Lunch was grand (always a burger, fries and a shake!) and we enjoyed the clips, as always.

We headed back to Pop for a quick nap before going to Epcot to eat our way around the world as part of the Food and Wine Festival. I took LeCrete to Club Cool, but she was on to me and wouldn't sample the Beverly.

Over at World Showcase, we made stops at China (chicken skewers), Australia (beef skewers and green bean salad) and Germany (apple struedel with vanilla creme sauce). The chicken skewers were delicious, as were the beef skewers. The green bean salad left a lot to be desired. Cold green beans are not for me. The struedel was good, too.

Thanks to the F&W Fest, there were picnic tables about and we sat at one in Germany to watch Illuminations. We staked out our spot at 8 p.m., along with another woman and a couple with a baby in a stroller. We had to leave a good portion of the bench closest to the water empty because it was broken. Many people came up and asked about it and someone always told them it was broken. Right when the show starts, this pushy woman walks up and asks and, again, we say the bench is broken. She sits down anyway, making the whole bench wobbly and blocking the view of those sitting behind her (like me!). She calls to her kids and husband to crowd in to a space that's not big enough for them all, causing all of us on the back bench to now have to stand to see anything. Her husband caught a clue and called the kids back. She sat for a moment more before moving to the side and standing right in front of two little girls. And, score points for the girls' mom, she told the woman she would have to move because she was blocking the girls' view. The family left. Sucks for them, but I can't believe people don't realize they need to find a spot to watch the show before it actually starts.

Oct. 25:
It's Magic Kindom time!! Finally!! Crane work is still going on at the Castle. And I saw a wall up in the Castle area, right next to Casey's. I have no idea what's being done.

First we head to Haunted Mansion because it's just been too long, ya know? Wait time said 30 minutes, but we only waited about 15. The ride is one of my favorites. Unfortunately, a woman three cars down insisted on snapping flash pictures all through the ride. Several people shouted at her, but she didn't stop. So I only can assume she didn't care or didn't speak English.

Next we went to It's A Small World because LeCrete had never been on it. I told her it was mandatory. The wait time only was 10 minutes, but it was getting busier by the minute. Peter Pan had a 50-minute wait.

We left Fantasyland behind and headed for Tomorrowland and Space Mountain. It too had a 30-minute wait sign posted, but it wasn't that long. Awesome, as always!

We decided to leave MK and head to Downtown Disney so LeCrete could see Pirates 2. First we stopped at Pop to freshen up since we also had a dinner ressie at LeCellier that night. LeCrete loved Pirates (well, duh!). I love it too, but this makes the fifth time for me and I almost fell asleep during it.

We checked in at LeCellier about 30 minutes early and got lucky when we were seated 15 minutes early. The place was packed and extremely loud. We both enjoyed our meal immensely. LeCrete had the shrimp cocktail for an appetizer and I had the Caesar salad. No cheese soup, sorry! We both ordered the herb-crusted prime rib, which was very tasty. Our server was Mo. He was very polite and nice. As we were finishing our meal, we heard the booms of Illuminations begin. By the time we finished and paid our tab, most of the crowd was gone and we enjoyed a leisurely stroll out to the bus stop.

I topped that evening off by doing a load of laundry. I was able to sit outside and watch the bunny rabbits come out to play. I counted at least four hopping around the bowling pin pool.

Here's some visuals to go along with this report:

 

[bayoutinkbelle]

More pics!

 

[bayoutinkbelle]

Oct. 26
We started off our day at MK, riding our favorites again. After a few hours, we decided to go to Epcot and headed for the monorail, the first time we rode it on this trip.

But, before we got to the monorail, we stopped for some ice cream. We sat down on a brick wall and were accosted by a pair of ducks, who were insistent on getting some of our ice cream. They had absolutely no fear of us and the female even tried to eat my show laces. As the crowd got heavier (it was almost parade time), they panicked and took off in flight, nearly taking some guy's head off as he was pushing his kid's stroller.

We watched some of the parade and cheered loudly for the day's grand marshal, who happened to be from Thibodeaux, La. Not near our town, but same state. :sohappy:

We met some nice people on the monorail, including an older couple from Montana celebrating their anniversary. It was their first return to WDW since they had brought their kids 23 years ago.

Unfortunately, both SE and the new Nemo ride were both down when we arrived. So we headed over to World Showcase for -- more shopping! I just fell in love with Japan's shop. I bought one CD, but LeCrete bought four. From Japan, we walked to China so LeCrete could search for more CDs. We also took a tour through the museum and watched the acrobats.

Since we missed the drum show, we headed back to Japan to catch it. We also staked out some benches for Illuminations and took turns bringing food back to our spot. Dinner was a turkey leg, which we shared. Kinda salty for me, but definitely tasty. Then I walked over to France and bought cheesecake (LeCrete) and chocolate mousse (me). The mousse was soooooo good! :slurp:

Bummer about Illuminations, since it was our last show. The globe didn't work at all. The show went on, though.

Oct. 27
We spent the day at MGM since we had a dinner package at Hollywood & Vine for Fantasmic. We did TT, the Indy stunt show, Star Tours and Sounds Dangerous. I wasn't impressed with Sounds Dangerous. It had a few funny spots, but it just was kinda flat. There were maybe five other people in the auditorium with us.

We also picked out a spot near Star Tours to sit and relax for awhile since LeCrete was suffering from a headache. It passed soon, with the help of some shade, a nice breeze and Tylenol.

After the Indy show, we went to Hollywood and Vine for our dinner ressies. We had ressies at 5 p.m. and got seated about 5:15 p.m. The buffet was fabulous! :slurp: So much better than the Fantasmic package I did this summer at Mama Melrose's. We ate our fill and then headed for the entrance near Oscar's. We were really early for the show, so we actually sat in the section next to the reserved seats. Front and center, great seats for the show.
We knew the weather called for rain, but it was supposed to move in late that night. It started to sprinkle only minutes after the show started and some people left. We just put on our rain gear and sat through it. The rain stopped before the show was over.

 

[bayoutinkbelle]

Oct. 28
After a nice breakfast at Pop, we spent the day shopping at Downtown Disney. I had to stock up on items at Basin, you know. And the Virgin store was having a sale.

Actually, I didn't buy too much, but did enjoy a lot of window shopping. We stopped in a Ghiradelli's for some treats. LeCrete tried unsuccessfully to find her vanilla bean chocolate squares, despite the fact that they were discontinued earlier this year. She was crushed to find they really are gone.

We left DD around 7 p.m. and LeCrete made plans to do laundry. I headed to MK to see Happy Hallowishes, since I hadn't seen it yet. I arrived at MK around 8 and decided to try a few rides before the show. Space Mountain had a 50-minute wait, so I FP'ed it and headed to HM. The wait there was 5 minutes. It was fun to do it alone and I had 20 minutes to kill when the ride was over.

I headed to the castle to find a spot for the show. I found one in the center of the hub, right in front of the statue. The place was packed. I'm not sure if it was because it was a Saturday, or because the show hadn't been presented for the previous two nights (because of work on the castle? Anyone?). Anyway, the show was great! I loved the HM flavor and the Ghost Host.

After the show, I headed back to Space Mountain. The standby wait still was 50 minutes, but the FP return line was really quick.

After that, I decided to have one last ride on TTA. It was really cool, but the ride was great. It was a fitting end to my time in the parks.

What I wasn't looking forward to was the long haul to the Pop bus stop, the last stop at MK. Geez! But it did give the chance to see the illuminated boat parade, something I'd never seen before.

Back at the resort, I stopped for a late dinner. I decided to give the pizza another chance, but picked up a Caesar salad, too, just in case. Oh, and worms in dirt.

The pizza still was nasty, but this time the sauce was so runny that it made the crust soggy. Yuck!

Oct. 29
The drive back home. Sigh. But, on the up side, we're probably going to stop in for a quick two-day visit in mid-January on our return home from a cruise to Grand Turks with my all-time favorite band, Barenaked Ladies.

Hope you enjoyed!

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

Thanks for sharing your visit

 

[mouselvrmom]

That was a great report! Thanks!

 

[Uponastar]

Yay!
I enjoyed your report and pics!
Thanks for sharing!

 

[LouDisney]

Great trip report and pics, thanks

 

[cpcpjfan]

Great Report! Hope you have as much fun on the BNL cruise.

 

[wdwmagic]

Great report! Thanks for sharing!

 

[KKnopf]

Thanks for sharing.... The more reports I read the more excited I get... 20 MORE DAYS!!!:sohappy:

 

[bayoutinkbelle]

Great Report! Hope you have as much fun on the BNL cruise.

I anticipate an insanely good time. :lol:

Thanks to all for your nice comments!

 

[metscool]

Did you know that you could tell the CMs at Everest if you could get the front of the train. I have only been in the front of the train 7 out of 106 times on the ride. I am going for 125 or maybe 130 on friday.

 

[mooooooo]

great trip

Your trip sounds awsome. I hopefully will get my trip posted soon!

 

[Nemo14]

Did you know that you could tell the CMs at Everest if you could get the front of the train. I have only been in the front of the train 7 out of 106 times on the ride. I am going for 125 or maybe 130 on friday.

When we went in September, they actually had a line to wait in for the front seats. I highly recommend riding up front!

Great TR by the way!

 

[meryll83]

Kim is as crafty as they come, so she had the foresight to make their hotel reservation for four people. This allowed us all to use hotel keys as Express Passes at the Universal attractions. Since the park was packed on Saturday, this was a life saver!

Great tip!
From the UK, all the prices at park hotels seem to be per person, but if you're in the US and will only be charged per room, then this is a FAB idea!

 

[bayoutinkbelle]

Great tip!
From the UK, all the prices at park hotels seem to be per person, but if you're in the US and will only be charged per room, then this is a FAB idea!

I really can't say enough about how great this was. That Saturday was so busy that I'm not sure we would have been able to do everything we wanted if all of us didn't have those passes. Sunday wasn't as busy, but we still used the passes. We were able to ride Hulk back-to-back with no wait at all.

I guess it just goes to show you that there are always new tips you can learn to help make your trips more enjoyable! :lol:

And thanks everyone for the nice comments! The TR was fun to do.