Hey everyone!
Just thought I would give you a trip report, a little late. My wife and sons, 10 & 4 had the time of our lives from Sept 22-29. We were celebrating my sons 10th B-Day. We stayed at Pop Century and had another great stay there! The busses ran very well and when there was a problem, another backup bus was there within 5 minutes. Crowds were very tolerable, no long waits at any parks. Walked across the bridge to see the progress on the Art of Animation Resort. Major work going on with the buildings. They all have glass in the windows now. Doesn't look like they have changed much on the lobby building as of yet but there was alot of heavy equipment surrounding it. I have some pics that I will post soon.
Animal Kingdom was busy our first day. I was expecting the YETI to be covered with a black curtain as I read here on the forums awile ago, but it was in glorious strobelight B MODE. My 10 year old had never been on Everest and he was so thrilled to see the creature even in B Mode! Paid for our meal at Rainforest for my sons B-day celebration, the food was excellent, and we always love the animals.
But the birthday surprises were just starting for him this trip.
When we arrived at opening at Epcot, because he proudly wore his Birthday button, we were chosen as the "Family of the Day" for the Seas with Nemo. We were let in behind the opening ropes for the first ride of the day on Nemo, were treated to a personal guided tour of the entire aquarium, two instant fast passes for any Epcot attraction, the first show of Turtle Talk with Crush and priority seating for Illuminations!! That was unbelievable. Of course we used the fastpasses for Soarin and Test Track. We had lunch at LeCellier (our first time) out of this world steak!! AAA+++.
Everwhere we went my son was a rock star with his birthday button. Studio's was as expected, no FP's for Toy Story, we braved the standby line which listed 1 hour but we got through in only 45. Tower of Terror was more awesome than ususal because the eye effect is working again and we were getting great drop sequences from the computer. Dinner at Sci-Fi was good but the service was not the best. The worst thing about Studio's was that we missed our Star Tours! Cant wait till its back.
We love Typhoon Lagoon and were there three times, Blizzard Beach once and Disney Quest twice.
We had dinner for the first time at Kona Cafe and it was fantastic. I recommend the Ginger Crusted Ribeye! Kona Cafe will be on our do again next year list.
My sons luck continued at the Magic Kingdom when he was picked first at the Captain Jack Sparrow Pirate Tutorial. The castmember playing Jack was very authentic, to the point that my son asked me if it really was Johnny Depp. We had some hurricane type storms while at the Magic Kingdom but only for an hour or so. But it came down hard. It stopped and held off throughout Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. The parade was pretty much the same as the last 2 years but still fun. Hallowishes was spectacular as usual. Since we had our kids this year we attended the character dance parties and had a ball watching our kids dance with the characters. Yeah, the fantasyland expansion does put a damper on the Magic Kingdom, but we knew it was progress we would enjoy in a couple of years.
We also ate dinner at Cape May Cafe, we did not know that they offered Crab Legs now, YAY!
All in all this was by far the best trip to WDW yet. It was 1 week of surprises and magic and we can't wait to do it again.
On a side note. I always questioned how good the security personell was at the park gates. That was answered this trip. When we were leaving Studio's our last day I was having a conversation with the security officer by the bag check area. While he was talking to me he managed to spot a guy walking in with a knife in his pocket and stopped him. I was impressed. He noticed that guy's knife while he was distracted talking to me. Anyway, it was clipped to the guys pocket and they made him check the knife. But, don't underestimate the security, they are on the ball.
Just thought I would give you a trip report, a little late. My wife and sons, 10 & 4 had the time of our lives from Sept 22-29. We were celebrating my sons 10th B-Day. We stayed at Pop Century and had another great stay there! The busses ran very well and when there was a problem, another backup bus was there within 5 minutes. Crowds were very tolerable, no long waits at any parks. Walked across the bridge to see the progress on the Art of Animation Resort. Major work going on with the buildings. They all have glass in the windows now. Doesn't look like they have changed much on the lobby building as of yet but there was alot of heavy equipment surrounding it. I have some pics that I will post soon.
Animal Kingdom was busy our first day. I was expecting the YETI to be covered with a black curtain as I read here on the forums awile ago, but it was in glorious strobelight B MODE. My 10 year old had never been on Everest and he was so thrilled to see the creature even in B Mode! Paid for our meal at Rainforest for my sons B-day celebration, the food was excellent, and we always love the animals.
But the birthday surprises were just starting for him this trip.
When we arrived at opening at Epcot, because he proudly wore his Birthday button, we were chosen as the "Family of the Day" for the Seas with Nemo. We were let in behind the opening ropes for the first ride of the day on Nemo, were treated to a personal guided tour of the entire aquarium, two instant fast passes for any Epcot attraction, the first show of Turtle Talk with Crush and priority seating for Illuminations!! That was unbelievable. Of course we used the fastpasses for Soarin and Test Track. We had lunch at LeCellier (our first time) out of this world steak!! AAA+++.
Everwhere we went my son was a rock star with his birthday button. Studio's was as expected, no FP's for Toy Story, we braved the standby line which listed 1 hour but we got through in only 45. Tower of Terror was more awesome than ususal because the eye effect is working again and we were getting great drop sequences from the computer. Dinner at Sci-Fi was good but the service was not the best. The worst thing about Studio's was that we missed our Star Tours! Cant wait till its back.
We love Typhoon Lagoon and were there three times, Blizzard Beach once and Disney Quest twice.
We had dinner for the first time at Kona Cafe and it was fantastic. I recommend the Ginger Crusted Ribeye! Kona Cafe will be on our do again next year list.
My sons luck continued at the Magic Kingdom when he was picked first at the Captain Jack Sparrow Pirate Tutorial. The castmember playing Jack was very authentic, to the point that my son asked me if it really was Johnny Depp. We had some hurricane type storms while at the Magic Kingdom but only for an hour or so. But it came down hard. It stopped and held off throughout Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. The parade was pretty much the same as the last 2 years but still fun. Hallowishes was spectacular as usual. Since we had our kids this year we attended the character dance parties and had a ball watching our kids dance with the characters. Yeah, the fantasyland expansion does put a damper on the Magic Kingdom, but we knew it was progress we would enjoy in a couple of years.
We also ate dinner at Cape May Cafe, we did not know that they offered Crab Legs now, YAY!
All in all this was by far the best trip to WDW yet. It was 1 week of surprises and magic and we can't wait to do it again.
On a side note. I always questioned how good the security personell was at the park gates. That was answered this trip. When we were leaving Studio's our last day I was having a conversation with the security officer by the bag check area. While he was talking to me he managed to spot a guy walking in with a knife in his pocket and stopped him. I was impressed. He noticed that guy's knife while he was distracted talking to me. Anyway, it was clipped to the guys pocket and they made him check the knife. But, don't underestimate the security, they are on the ball.
