Well, we are just in the door. Who's up for a trip report?
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Trip Report Completed - Relaxation, Stress, and everything in between - an August 2014 trip report
- Thread starter gwhb75
- Start date
Jae99
Well-Known Member
We are driving down. There is going to be my family of four and my parents. Nannee and Papa decided to take everybody to WDW for Christmas. We are checking in on the 25th and leaving the 2nd of January.
The busiest and most expensive time of the year! But its what they wanted. The cost for all 6 of us to fly was close to $5000, we have rented a van for just over a $1000 for 14 days and 5000 km so we should be able to get down and back for considerably less. Doing it this way is allowing us to splurge on some extras while we are in Orlando. Hopefully a visit to UNI on the 2nd before we head home.
Zipadeelady
Well-Known Member
Great report!
Sounds like a great plan. Let me know how the driving goes. We've talked about driving down sometime just to see what it would be like.
Thanks. Glad you're enjoying it.
Day 5 – The halfway point
Hello Day 5. So the plan was to try and make rope drop at the MK today. Well….at least the team gave it their best effort. We actually got to the MK just after 9 (9:05 to be precise – us accountants and our numbers…). We had hoped to do the 7DMT through the standby line, but by the time we got there the wait was already 65 minutes….I don’t think so (plus we had FPs for it in a few hours anyways, I just really wanted to see the stand-by line). We decided to head towards Storybook Circus since we were so close (do we get our Disney fan card revoked if I admit that this is the first time we’ve been in Storybook Circus since it opened?).
However, on the way there we noticed Pooh….oh get your minds out of the gutter people….I’m talking the ride.
There was a 5 minute standby, so we decided to ride that first.
It was fun. After that we split up for a few minutes as the kids wanted to ride the Tea Cups and Tammy and I won’t go near them anymore (OK, quick confession here. It’s hard for me to admit, but I’m getting old (I’m 39 so it’s not like I’m THAT old, but still….Anyways, back to my confession. Earlier in the year Stephanie’s class had their grade 8 end of year trip to Canada’s Wonderland (for those not familiar with Wonderland, think a Six Flags type place), and she wanted me to come as a chaperone (which I also found a bit odd. I remember grade 8 and the LAST thing I wanted was my parents being around). So I went…The park was empty….Awesome I thought to myself (when the kids were younger we used to have season’s passes for Wonderland, and used to love the days when the park was almost empty since the wait times were next to nothing (and often times were nothing)). Well…turns out I can’t handle it anymore. After about the 6th ride in 1.5 hours I almost puked, and then at the end of the day I almost puked again (doing the same 6 rides in 1.5 hours)). If you’ve seen the Modern Family Disneyland episode, I can now relate to how Phil felt). So, long-story short, I stay away from spinners as much as possible.
While the kids rode the teacups I went and took some pictures of Dumbo.
The kids eventually came and found us and we rode Dumbo for the first time since our very first trip back in 2008.
It was fun. After Dumbo we decided to do the Barnstormer. I’d be ticked if I had to wait longer than 10 minutes for this one. I thought they used to do two laps of the track, but not anymore. Basically a 20 second ride. Fun, but not worth waiting for (there was no line which is why we tried it).
LOOK...IT'S THE MINETRAIN
After Barnstormer we headed over to Fronteirland. We had fastpasses for Splash for later in the day (it was only around 10:00 right now), but the standby line said 10 minutes, so we decided to ride it on standby. Did I mention I love the My Disney Experience App? While we were in line for Splash I changed the faspass we had for Splash to Voyage Under the Sea. Awesome. Now, it turns out that 10 minutes in Disney must mean something totally different than the 10 minutes we are used to outside of Disney, because my watch said it took 30 minutes, not 10. Regardless, we rode, got slightly wet, and had fun.
So it’s now close to 11 and the we’re all feeling a bit “peckish” (i.e. hungry, but not ready for a full meal). We decided to grab a few snacks (it was also super hot again today). Steph just got a bottle of Sprite, Liam and Tammy got the Minute Maid ice scrape things, and I got a …chilled pickle? And a can of fruit flavoured carbonated water? Wow, the heat must have gotten to me…Chilled Pickle?
To be continued
Hello Day 5. So the plan was to try and make rope drop at the MK today. Well….at least the team gave it their best effort. We actually got to the MK just after 9 (9:05 to be precise – us accountants and our numbers…). We had hoped to do the 7DMT through the standby line, but by the time we got there the wait was already 65 minutes….I don’t think so (plus we had FPs for it in a few hours anyways, I just really wanted to see the stand-by line). We decided to head towards Storybook Circus since we were so close (do we get our Disney fan card revoked if I admit that this is the first time we’ve been in Storybook Circus since it opened?).
However, on the way there we noticed Pooh….oh get your minds out of the gutter people….I’m talking the ride.
There was a 5 minute standby, so we decided to ride that first.
It was fun. After that we split up for a few minutes as the kids wanted to ride the Tea Cups and Tammy and I won’t go near them anymore (OK, quick confession here. It’s hard for me to admit, but I’m getting old (I’m 39 so it’s not like I’m THAT old, but still….Anyways, back to my confession. Earlier in the year Stephanie’s class had their grade 8 end of year trip to Canada’s Wonderland (for those not familiar with Wonderland, think a Six Flags type place), and she wanted me to come as a chaperone (which I also found a bit odd. I remember grade 8 and the LAST thing I wanted was my parents being around). So I went…The park was empty….Awesome I thought to myself (when the kids were younger we used to have season’s passes for Wonderland, and used to love the days when the park was almost empty since the wait times were next to nothing (and often times were nothing)). Well…turns out I can’t handle it anymore. After about the 6th ride in 1.5 hours I almost puked, and then at the end of the day I almost puked again (doing the same 6 rides in 1.5 hours)). If you’ve seen the Modern Family Disneyland episode, I can now relate to how Phil felt). So, long-story short, I stay away from spinners as much as possible.
While the kids rode the teacups I went and took some pictures of Dumbo.
The kids eventually came and found us and we rode Dumbo for the first time since our very first trip back in 2008.
It was fun. After Dumbo we decided to do the Barnstormer. I’d be ticked if I had to wait longer than 10 minutes for this one. I thought they used to do two laps of the track, but not anymore. Basically a 20 second ride. Fun, but not worth waiting for (there was no line which is why we tried it).
LOOK...IT'S THE MINETRAIN
After Barnstormer we headed over to Fronteirland. We had fastpasses for Splash for later in the day (it was only around 10:00 right now), but the standby line said 10 minutes, so we decided to ride it on standby. Did I mention I love the My Disney Experience App? While we were in line for Splash I changed the faspass we had for Splash to Voyage Under the Sea. Awesome. Now, it turns out that 10 minutes in Disney must mean something totally different than the 10 minutes we are used to outside of Disney, because my watch said it took 30 minutes, not 10. Regardless, we rode, got slightly wet, and had fun.
So it’s now close to 11 and the we’re all feeling a bit “peckish” (i.e. hungry, but not ready for a full meal). We decided to grab a few snacks (it was also super hot again today). Steph just got a bottle of Sprite, Liam and Tammy got the Minute Maid ice scrape things, and I got a …chilled pickle? And a can of fruit flavoured carbonated water? Wow, the heat must have gotten to me…Chilled Pickle?
To be continued
Last edited:
Thanks.
Disney Toitle
Member
Great. TR so far! Liam's singing story just cracked me up!
Thanks. Glad you're enjoying it
TheMouseFan
Well-Known Member
I hear you on the feeling old because of the rides thing. I just turned 40 in November, and it kills me to admit that I can't ride all of the coasters back to back to back like I used to when I take the kids to our local amusement park!! I used to be able to do them all day long, now I drag out the walk between rides as long as I can to try to get ready for the next one! Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip!
Day 5 continued
After choking down the pickled cucumber, we had to split up. Steph and Tammy had FPs to meet Anna and Elsa at the Princess Fairytale Hall, and Liam and I had FPs for the Tomorrow Land Speedway.
Liam and I had a good time, other than the fact that I don’t fit well in the cars. I’m pretty tall (6’4”), and my legs wouldn’t fit behind the wheel. I had to sit in the passenger side and try to drive (Liam wanted to “race” me). It was fun anyways. After the speedway Liam and I went and did the Peoplemover (we weren’t sure how long the meet with the Frozen girls would take, so we figured we had a few minutes).
Tammy and Steph felt that they had the “B” team of Anna and Elsa on (Tammy mentioned that Elsa seemed to be having wardrobe issues as she was kind of out of character and kept pointing to her chest while looking at her handler).
They seemed to have fun anyways.
We met back up with Tammy and Steph and headed over to BoG for lunch.
We approached the bridge and saw a notice board up….”we have reached capacity for lunch”….OH NO….What to do???....Actually, it didn’t matter as we had done the FP for BoG lunch (it’s not a “FP+” choice. There is a separate website where you go and book your time and, if you want, pre-book your meals (which we did)). What a great system. We checked in at the desk before the bridge and were sent in to main restaurant. We paid (in the room where the do pictures with Beast at night), were given a rose,
and seated all within about 5 minutes from when we first checked in. We decided to sit in the West Wing.
Within about 2 minutes of taking our seat our lunch was at our table. It was so good. Liam and Steph got the carved turkey sandwich,
Tammy got the quiche,
and I got the roast beef sandwich.
Everything was soooo good. One last picture on the way out:
Now, we had originally had ADRs for BoG tonight too, but decided to change that (we changed it a few days before so as not to hit the $10/person charge if changing within 24 hours). We actually changed a few ADRs around, so tonight we’ll be going to Raglan Road (more to come on that soon).
To be continued...
After choking down the pickled cucumber, we had to split up. Steph and Tammy had FPs to meet Anna and Elsa at the Princess Fairytale Hall, and Liam and I had FPs for the Tomorrow Land Speedway.
Liam and I had a good time, other than the fact that I don’t fit well in the cars. I’m pretty tall (6’4”), and my legs wouldn’t fit behind the wheel. I had to sit in the passenger side and try to drive (Liam wanted to “race” me). It was fun anyways. After the speedway Liam and I went and did the Peoplemover (we weren’t sure how long the meet with the Frozen girls would take, so we figured we had a few minutes).
Tammy and Steph felt that they had the “B” team of Anna and Elsa on (Tammy mentioned that Elsa seemed to be having wardrobe issues as she was kind of out of character and kept pointing to her chest while looking at her handler).
They seemed to have fun anyways.
We met back up with Tammy and Steph and headed over to BoG for lunch.
We approached the bridge and saw a notice board up….”we have reached capacity for lunch”….OH NO….What to do???....Actually, it didn’t matter as we had done the FP for BoG lunch (it’s not a “FP+” choice. There is a separate website where you go and book your time and, if you want, pre-book your meals (which we did)). What a great system. We checked in at the desk before the bridge and were sent in to main restaurant. We paid (in the room where the do pictures with Beast at night), were given a rose,
and seated all within about 5 minutes from when we first checked in. We decided to sit in the West Wing.
Within about 2 minutes of taking our seat our lunch was at our table. It was so good. Liam and Steph got the carved turkey sandwich,
Tammy got the quiche,
and I got the roast beef sandwich.
Everything was soooo good. One last picture on the way out:
Now, we had originally had ADRs for BoG tonight too, but decided to change that (we changed it a few days before so as not to hit the $10/person charge if changing within 24 hours). We actually changed a few ADRs around, so tonight we’ll be going to Raglan Road (more to come on that soon).
To be continued...
That is exactly it. I used to do rides all day long, non-stop. Now I need the break or I start feeling sick. Glad you're enjoying the report.
My report makes ME want to book another trip too. Seriously, being home is rough. Thanks for following along.
Day 5 continued
After lunch we used our FP for Under the Sea which was good. After that we decided to head back to BLT and go swimming (it was really hot again today). Tammy and I did some laundry quickly and then joined the kids at the pool.
We swam for a few hours and had a good time.
After swimming the kids decided they wanted to go to DTD (and, specifically, go to Disney Quest). We went back to our room and got changed, but then a huge storm rolled it, so we waited it out.
As with most Florida storms, it passed quickly. We hopped on a bus, and were soon at DTD. Tammy decided to wander the stores while I took the kids to DQ.
DQ was fun, but is really showing its age. A lot of the virtual reality rides are no longer “cutting edge”, and a lot of the games and rides were down. This place needs to be updated badly. We did the “Ride the Comix” and “Alien Invasion” simulators.
The kids went and did the Virtual Space Mountain thing (they did it twice) and I went and did some of the racing games. We went to play pinball on the top floor, but 3 of the 7 pinball machines were broken. I would say we spent about 2 hours at DQ. Overall assessment…”MEH”.
We left DQ and met up with Tammy (It was around 7:30 now), and headed to Raglan Road.
We got there a bit earlier than our ADR (our ADR was at 8:45, and we got there around 8:15). We were seated around 8:30. I don’t know if it was the heat or the late ADR, but we didn’t really feel like eating too much. On top of that, Raglan was way too loud tonight (as in we had to yell to talk to each other). We decided rather than getting meals we’d just split some starters. We got the wings, deep fried sausages, ribs and a seafood dip.
All were pretty good and were really filling. For dessert we got two bread puddings (this may be the best bread pudding on property), a trifle and a black forest pudding.
All were good too. Unfortunately, the place was just too loud and I think we were just too tired and hot so we didn’t love Raglan this year.
So that was pretty much it for the day. Liam stopped by the Goofy Candy Co on the way back to the bus and picked up a giant sucker. We got on the bus and were back to BLT around 11:00. We’re exhausted. Off to bed we go.
Up next - Day 6
After lunch we used our FP for Under the Sea which was good. After that we decided to head back to BLT and go swimming (it was really hot again today). Tammy and I did some laundry quickly and then joined the kids at the pool.
We swam for a few hours and had a good time.
After swimming the kids decided they wanted to go to DTD (and, specifically, go to Disney Quest). We went back to our room and got changed, but then a huge storm rolled it, so we waited it out.
As with most Florida storms, it passed quickly. We hopped on a bus, and were soon at DTD. Tammy decided to wander the stores while I took the kids to DQ.
DQ was fun, but is really showing its age. A lot of the virtual reality rides are no longer “cutting edge”, and a lot of the games and rides were down. This place needs to be updated badly. We did the “Ride the Comix” and “Alien Invasion” simulators.
The kids went and did the Virtual Space Mountain thing (they did it twice) and I went and did some of the racing games. We went to play pinball on the top floor, but 3 of the 7 pinball machines were broken. I would say we spent about 2 hours at DQ. Overall assessment…”MEH”.
We left DQ and met up with Tammy (It was around 7:30 now), and headed to Raglan Road.
We got there a bit earlier than our ADR (our ADR was at 8:45, and we got there around 8:15). We were seated around 8:30. I don’t know if it was the heat or the late ADR, but we didn’t really feel like eating too much. On top of that, Raglan was way too loud tonight (as in we had to yell to talk to each other). We decided rather than getting meals we’d just split some starters. We got the wings, deep fried sausages, ribs and a seafood dip.
All were pretty good and were really filling. For dessert we got two bread puddings (this may be the best bread pudding on property), a trifle and a black forest pudding.
All were good too. Unfortunately, the place was just too loud and I think we were just too tired and hot so we didn’t love Raglan this year.
So that was pretty much it for the day. Liam stopped by the Goofy Candy Co on the way back to the bus and picked up a giant sucker. We got on the bus and were back to BLT around 11:00. We’re exhausted. Off to bed we go.
Up next - Day 6
Thanks. Glad you're enjoying it.
As long as there is Wi-Fi coverage then it works well. My parents even use it to talk to their family in Europe. The app is free so there is no risk even if it doesn't work for you.
Glad you're enjoying it. Being back at work is tough. Been crazy busy. Will post some more on the weekend.