First time to WDW - Sep 2012

Hi everyone, I've been reading these forums for a couple of years but I've never signed up to post before. I thought it'd be nice to share my experience of going to Orlando for the first time with everyone. A little bit of background first, I'm a regular poster on other theme park forums and I visit Disneyland Paris a couple of times a year. Due to mainly being a fan of the Paris resort I will probably end up comparing a lot of the differences, I hope I don't upset anyone in the process, it's just my opinion. Thanks for taking a look at my thread and I'll try to update it as much as I can.

September 1st - Travelling

After booking up our two week vacation all the way back in November 2011 it was finally time for Patrick and I to get on our plane at London Gatwick to Orlando International Airport. There was a bit of faff getting on to our BA flight due to people being silly and taking forever but once on there wasn't much of a wait before we were up in the air and on our way to the States. The flight flew-by with lots of choice on the Entertainment system and luckily enough the guy next to me wasn't an annoyance.

Once in Orlando we went down to the Disney Magical Express desk to check in for our coach to the hotel. This is clearly one of the better perks when staying on Disney property and we had clearly selected a great hotel to stay at. There was barely anyone on our coach and we were the only ones getting off at Disney's Old Key West Resort, it was also the first Resort the coach stopped at.

The Old Key West Resort is quite amazing, it's very large yet calm and relaxing and all the staff are amazing. After we were given about a billion booklets when we checked in we were driven on this large golf buggy thing with our suitcases to our building. Ya see, this resort is made up of lots of little buildings, each with 2 or 3 floors and rooms of varying sizes. We were in building number 35 in room 20-something. It was a very decent sized room, two large double beds, a HD TV, a large bathroom, a tiny kitchenette and even a balcony with a view of a tree and one of the many lakes around the resort.

After sorting our lives out we were a bit peckish so we decided to walk to the Downtown Disney boat. It was really hot which was really odd considering how dark out it was (we're talking about 9pm, maybe a little earlier). Up until this point we'd mainly been in air conditioned spaces so this was the point that the heat really affected us for the first time.

The boat service was really nice and relaxing and a nice way to start off our trip really. Once we arrived at Downtown we headed to Earl of Sandwich, we love the ones in London and Disneyland Paris so it was a must that this is how we began our culinary experience on this trip. It was very busy, in fact the whole of Downtown was really busy. Despite the long queue we managed to order and get our sandwiches in a decent time. As we expected it was just as good as the other stores. I also tried one of their cakes, it was just too much for me. Oh and it was also our first use of our Disney Dining Plan, so that's -1 quick service credit.

After food we decided to have a look around a few of the stores nearby. We started off by looking in the large pin trading store, it had quite the large selection. It was very hard all trip to stop myself from buying some, the last time I did that on a Disney trip I nearly didn't have any money left. We also popped into the World of Disney store which is very big and had quite a lot on offer. This would be a shop that we'd keep coming back to over our two week trip.

I think it was already getting fairly late and we were exhausted from our long travels so we hopped on a shuttle bus to the hotel. As it was dark and we were still new to where everything was at our resort we did end up getting a little confused as to which bus stop we needed to get off, not really helped by the random route the bus decided to take. Anyway we finally managed to get off at the right stop and went straight to our room to get some sleep to prepare us for our first day in a Walt Disney World theme park.

Thanks for reading folks!

 

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Star Tours was excellent second time round and we got a completely new mix of scenes which was fantastic. One of my favourite elements of the new story is the hologram of a character giving everyone a message, it's so awesome. There is one issue with version 2 that I haven't mentioned yet and that's the 3D glasses making the side screen go all weird because it's not a 3D image, still a minor issue in a fantastic attraction.

We then went in search of some food and we ended up in the backlot express. A big fast food joint which was pretty empty. I had some boneless chicken wings which were pretty awesome despite being way too spicy for me (I cooled them down with a decent amount of ranch dressing). I love all the props hanging around and we happened to sit next to the car they used for Roger Rabbit. We both thought that was pretty cool.

It was getting late and almost time for Fantasmic. So we headed over to there. As we did we looked at the sky in amazement as a storm was brewing and with the sun it was creating some epic looking clouds.

I randomly popped into the Planet Hollywood store and found the two female Power Ranger costumes from the film! I used to love the Power Rangers as a child and they gave me happy memories from my childhood.

We then continued on into the Fantasmic arena. I think everyone was a little concerned that the storm was going to ruin or cancel the show (I know Patrick was very concerned). It was creating some epic lightning bolts behind the mountain which was really cool to watch. The crowd entertainers came out and were pretty awesome at warming up the crowd, everyone singing Disney classics was pretty amazing. Who wouldn't love over 6,000 people singing along at the same time? There was a little delay due to the weather (I think they were concerned the weather was getting closer) but it wasn't too bad.

The show is really good, I love the main song from the show. I don't really get why Pocahontas gets such a massive section of the show though? I've heard the soundtrack for the California one which has Peter Pan instead and that seems to just flow better. Still the show is a great way to end a brilliant day at the Studios park.

I still can't get over how awesome Star Tours II and Muppetvision are. The whole park is just fantastic and I couldn't wait to get back already which is good because we only had a few days inbetween our next visit.

So we had left the park and went back to the hotel, I think we may have actually gone to Downtown for a bit too. Could have been the night where we sat at the Tequila bar drinking another alcoholic cocktail while a really cool duo of musicians were jamming away.


Thanks for reading! Next up is a journey to mysterious islands

 

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I noticed that I also titled that last report about learning to draw, realised that that isn't until our next visit, whoops.


September 6th - Islands of fun!

The original plan for today was to just go to Universal Studios but as the evening show wasn't on due to some corporate event we decided to spend the day at Islands of Adventure. We had booked the night before a Mears shuttle from our hotel. The guy was really early and we were the last to get in and we had to squeeze into the back of this vehicle which was a little awkward. Still we were soon on our way and before we knew it we had arrived at the Universal Resort.

We went straight over to the park via CityWalk and as soon as we entered I was happy, the theming is amazing, one of the best park entrances I've seen. Just so much to look at.

Our plan was to head into the Marvel area first and work our way around. So first up was The Incredible Hulk. I was looking forward to this, a launched B&M, what could go wrong? We had to put our stuff into lockers first which was annoying and a running theme for the rest of the day. The queueline was empty which meant we just walked past all the TV screens, I'm sure it would have helped the boredom if there was a queue. We walked straight into the back row, it's odd, it was like no one wanted to go for the back row.

So, what did I think of the actual ride experience? Not as good as I was hoping, the launch was great and the ride had some great moments but overall it was a little too rough. I don't get how it was rough though? Is it something to do with the Florida weather?

So yeah, not a fantastic start to our day. We hit up Spiderman next, another ride I was uber excited about riding. There was once again no queue, this park was totally dead - excellent. The random Merlin-esque green screen photo opportunity that you're forced to do half way through the queue was odd and I don't really understand why it's there.

OMG, this ride is so friggin' amazing, I loved every second of it, the music, the effects, the amazing 3D, I was just totally blown away by how good it was. It was really weird seeing a poster for Iron Man in the background of one of the scenes, nice little touch.

We walked straight through the Toon Lagoon area and into the Jurassic Park area. I wanted to take a nice photo of the entrance sign but some lady was taking about a year to pose in front of it so I got impatient and she is now in my photo too, we can call her Mandy.

The sign for River Adventure said 10 minutes but this was a lie, it was walk-on. OMG I was loving these empty queuelines. This ride is really well done, the indoor section I could actually feel my heart starting to race, the tension they build is brilliant. I liked how all my fav dinos from the film made it into the ride. The drop at the end is brilliant too, a nice amount of air time and the splash doesn't get you too soaked (well, unless you sit in the front). It was just refreshing because despite how early it was the heat was already being quite burdenous.

We tried to get on the Jurassic Park coaster but despite the park being empty and about 6 adults all trying to get into the queue at the same time the staff member was having none of it. I don't think any of us could quite believe what we were hearing, the ride was made to allow adults to sit in the carriage so why couldn't we go on? Not like there was a 30 min queue for kids waiting. It looked like fun too which was the worst bit about it.

So because it was hot we decided to head back and do the two water rides. Question, why have Universal put all three of their water rides in the same area? Just seems like a silly idea.

Anyway we decided to do Rip Saw Falls and stupidly didn't pay to put our bags into a locker. It's a shame the whole theme of this ride was totally lost on me but I've just never seen the TV show it's referring to before - Did it even make it over to the UK? The ride itself is pretty good though with lots of drops and it gets you absolutely drenched. However I was getting a little concerned about my bag's contents towards the end of the ride so on the big drop when we got towards the splash I leant over it to help protect it which resulted in Patrick getting double the amount of water - LOL.

So we were suitably moist already, what harm could going on the rapids ride next do? I'd heard many stories about this ride and I wasn't risking my valuables again so placed them in a locker. The queueline was empty yet it still took a good 10 minutes to get on the ride, why are they so long even if they're empty? We were sat in a boat with a family and I've never laughed so much in my entire life. The entire ride is just an assault on the boat, it's like they're trying to drown you at every turn. I don't even know what was going on for most of it because I got so wet so quickly that the wax in my hair was starting to make its way down my face (such a gross feeling). I think the most hilarious part for me was when we were going up the lift hill, as every other rapids I've been on ends with one I thought "oh, maybe this is the end, thank God for that". No, it really wasn't, it was yet another descent into copious amounts of water. The look on the Mother's face was priceless when we all realised what was about to happen.

Oh Popeye & Bruto's Bilge-rat Barges, you are so evil but so amazing. I felt like I'd just jumped into the Sea or something, I was just dripping water for hours, not even the hot Florida Sun could help. It should be said that it may have put Patrick off rapids for life. There's no way I could do it again unless unless I'd lost the plot but I won't deny how brilliant it was and an experience I'll never forget.

So because we were both so wet we sat around for a bit and then wandered towards Potter. Patrick loathes Potter and it made him keep saying bad things about the new area without even entering it which was a little annoying. It's a shame that if you're outside the Potter area you can tell that the main ride is just in a massive warehouse.

Look to the left of the photo

However I thought once inside the area it was so immersive and the attention to detail was amazing. Obviously we headed straight for Forbidden Journey. It was advertising a 20 minute wait but it turned out to be more like 5 or 10. Apparently this is pretty unheard of. The queueline was amazing once you enter the actual school. I was a little sad that there wasn't a queue because we walked past so many effects. We did stop and watch the Dawn French painting because she's amazing.

I loved the ride, it all works really well, I like how there is onboard audio as well as general audio, helps create a fantastic surround sound. I thought some scenes were quite scary, especially as a lot of kids would be riding it. Still, a fantastic ride if a little disorientating.

The faff of trying to get belongings out of the lockers at the end was really annoying. The person in front of us was taking forever because it was having issues reading his fingerprint and then he let us go and it was having issues with mine too, urgh. We called an attendant over who was able to sort it out for both of us. It was just all so frustrating though and takes up so much time.

We were getting quite hungry now so we went in search of food. We ended up going all the way over to the Suess area. It's quite a fun and quirky little area, very colourful. We ate in the big tent, the staff in there were all really happy and cool. I think I had spaghetti and meatballs with some epic dippin dots desert. The food was really good and filling if a little on the pricey side.

As we were in the area we decided to do the rides. We went over to Cat in the hat. We had no idea what it was so you can imagine the massive smiles on our faces when it turned out to be a really cool dark ride. It did love to spin though which wasn't such a great idea after food. Still, we both loved it, I had no idea it even existed and it was just so much fun.

We then rode the The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride which is totally a powered rollercoaster. It was quite cool going through the big tent which we ate in...

It was quite good fun. It probably had one of the longest queues of the day too which was odd. Oh and the staff member loved talking to us because we were British, she was fab.

Heading back towards the Potter area we fell in love with the Lost Continent area and decided to do the Poseideon's Fury attraction. We had no idea what it was but it looked epic and I'd heard it was a must-do. Patrick was a little concerned it was another water ride (we still hadn't dried off completely after the rapids) so we asked an attendant who said it wasn't. The ride itself is very cool and I have no idea how to talk about it without giving anything away. It's just mind-blowingly epic, how the hell the last scene happens I don't even know. I really loved it but it's not exactly something you can go through more than once in a trip.

It's a shame that more of the Lost Continent area is getting eaten up by Potter. They had started construction on the train line that runs to the other park and they were in the process of tearing down what looked like some market stalls.

Talking of Potter we went back in for Dragon Challenge. We placed our stuff in a locker and headed into the very long but empty queueline. The queueline is once again really well themed and there were some really nice touches here and there. Once again everyone seemed to be avoiding the back row so we walked straight onto the back row of the red one. It was a fantastic coaster, quite intense and had some brilliant moments. It's a big shame that everything outside is just over dirt, grass and concrete, it lets the whole ride down. Seeing all the backstage buildings and air con units just looks really unprofessional too. The fact it didn't duel was also a massive let down but at least I knew about that beforehand.

We then went straight back around for the blue one. This was no where near as good as the red one, not as intense and full of long straight bits (clearly so it could duel). I found it a little boring in comparison.

We then got our bags back and went to ride Flight of the Hippogriff. It was good fun, I quite like these little family coasters. The little area it sits in is quite nicely themed too.

After we got off the weather had turned and it had started to spit/drizzle. We headed back towards the Jurassic Park area and it then started to really chuck it down so we had to run to some cover. The next indoor area was the Jurassic Park discovery center. I'd heard that it was just a shop and fast food place but downstairs it's full of awesome. So glad the rain forced in there. When we got downstairs there was a guy holding a small animatronic dino which was just so cool.

There were loads of interactive things to do including a cool 'what dino would you be' DNA thing which had the DNA strand from the film talking you through it.

 

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They also had a lab where they taught you how to look after dino eggs and one of them hatched like in the film <3

This place was a Jurassic Park fans dream. However we made the decision to move over to the other park due to the inclement weather. We left the building because the weather had calmed for a moment but as we made a break for it the weather started to get worse. We ended up hiding in the Marvel area for quite some time. The weather wasn't getting any better so to help kill some time we did Spiderman again. It was still brilliant second time around.

Once we exited the attraction the weather was a bit more calm so we made our break for the exit and headed over to the Studios park. The first thing we did was head straight into the new Despicable Me attraction. It was good fun and the minions <3 "BANANA!" I love how after the simulator section you enter a room where you party with minions, was pretty cool.

After that we headed into Twister. Ha, it is such a random attraction but pretty cool. The cow <3 The pre show videos are looking very dated though and is probably in need of a little update.

We then went in to do Revenge of the Mummy. It was walk on so we managed to just run round and do it twice in a row. It's not really what I was expecting, the two proper scenes were really awesome but the dark ride section where you're just whizzing around a bunch of glow in the dark cardboard cut outs, yeah just like Rock 'n' Rollercoaster, I thought it was lame and a bit pants. So overall the ride is good because of the epic scenes but I just wasn't a fan of the actual coaster sections.

After our second go the parade was just about to start. We were both quite intrigued by this as it is Universal's first go at a proper parade. It was actually really good. The music mix was really fun, there was loads of characters and dancers and that an it was generally very entertaining.

Bit of a random choice but it worked quite well

After the parade we decided to grab a snack. I went into Starbucks and Patrick grabbed some Ben & Jerrys. After our little snack we went over to Men in Black. The first room you enter, the confusion on all of our faces was brilliant and then we entered the main queue which was empty but it was really cool, looks like it was just ripped straight out of the film. The ride was really cool but neither of us really knew how the points thing was working. Sometimes we'd get points and sometimes we wouldn't yet we'd both be constantly hitting the aliens - are you only meant to hit certain ones? So we were a little confused and with the park about to close we managed to run round and go on again. Yep, still confused as to how the points work, pretty sure the queueline tells you but we just walked past everything.

Oh well, that was our day in the parks. We then had a long wait until out shuttle back to the hotel so we went for some dinner. We opted for the Hard Rock Cafe. OMG I love this restaurant so much, our waiter was called 'Vegas' and he was awesome and just everything about the place was epic. I loved all the murals with Rock legends and the stain glass windows and the massive interactive screen where you can view all of the memorabilia they've got at all of the restaurants. The food was really good too and if I end up in Florida again I'm totally going back.

Patrick's burger

BBQ Pulled chicken sandwich of awesomeness

We then looked around the shops and took our time until we could get our shuttle back to the hotel. We were the first to be dropped off which was nice. It was such a fantastic day, the rides at Islands of Adventure are just fantastic and it's one of my favourite parks now, the theming is just superb too, love it. Universal Studios seemed like a really nice park too and we couldn't wait to check out more on our return. It's a shame the weather turned sour in the afternoon but it didn't really ruin our day at all.

Thanks for reading - Next time we have MORE Water