Hi all,
I'm new here, only discovered this site quite recently, and so been lurking on here for a while. Now I've decided to join and share with you my trip report from my first ever visit to Walt Disney World with my parents at Easter this year. I'm already planning our next visit - hopefully September 2009. :lol:
We were very lucky in the fact that we had no idea of the dining situation before we went. We had the dining plan though, but didn't realise about the ADR's and all that, but luckily managed to get walk-ups in practically all the restaurants.
I ought to add, the following trip report was written and sent to various members of the family, so there's a lot of explaining about different attractions and stuff.
Walt Disney World is for me the holiday of a lifetime. Ever since I can remember I’ve wished to go there, and now after years of waiting, the time had finally come. I may be 19 but I still got as excited about it as a little boy.[/FONT]
To cover the whole holiday fully, I ought to start at the very beginning, as that is a very good place to start, and so it all started on Sunday 16th March 2008.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…
SUNDAY MARCH 16TH 2008.
We were down for actually flying to Orlando on Monday morning, but we realised that to get to the airport on time for check-in, we’d have to travel down about 4am in the morning, so it made much more sense to travel down and stay in the Travelodge hotel right near Gatwick airport overnight, so we didn’t need to rush in the morning.
So, we left the house about 4:30pm and travelled down to the hotel, and arrived there about 7:30pm ish.
Once we had checked-in we went to our room, to find it absolutely freezing cold. Also, the room contained only one double bed for mum and dad, so I was expected to sleep on a sofa in the room. The only problem was there happened to be no bedclothes. There was also no soap in the bathroom. All this combined with the rotten rainy weather outside – it was not a pleasant experience, however, we spoken to reception and they brought us some bedclothes, soap and a radiator for the room.
Once we’d sorted ourselves out and settled down to sleep, all of us had a restless and uncomfortable night, particularly me sleeping on the sofa as it felt as hard as possible so I had backache in the morning, from the uncomfortableness of it and the fact I couldn’t stretch out that well either. We hoped this was only a bad start and things would get better.
MONDAY MARCH 17TH 2008
First of all was Breakfast. As with problems with the room, there were problems with the breakfast. It was a fried breakfast of which you helped yourself too; however the remainder that was left was rather tasteless. There weren’t any plates, bowls or cups out anywhere so had to ask a so-called waiter, who went and came back with just the amount for the people in your party. Also, mum had a yoghurt which meant she used her only spoon, but needed another one for cereal, so she asked the waiter who caused a fuss by saying she’d already got one spoon so why did she need another one? Also, all the bowls, plates etc that were brought out from the kitchen were boiling hot, so overall it wasn’t a good breakfast.
Once that was over, we gathered together everything and set off to Gatwick airport. First of all we parked the car in the airport car park, and got on a bus to take us to the terminal. When we got there, we checked in, handed over our luggage, and headed over to security. Before we got there we had to put all liquids and creams we had in our hand luggage into clear plastic bags, not sure why. In the security area we had to put almost everything on us into boxes, dad and I were wearing belts and had to take them off because they would apparently set off the alarm.
After that was done, we had some time to look round the shops in the terminal before our plane left at about 11:30am.
On the plane, in-between the receiving of the complementary food and drinks, I managed to watch some things on the little TV on the back of the seats. Both mum and I watched the film ‘Enchanted’ which is the latest Disney film and I watched episodes of Robin Hood and Heroes, and played some games too. I also listened to my MP3 player for a while too.
It wasn’t long before the 8 ½ hours passed, but as the plane came down in Orlando my ears went really deaf and hurt quite a bit, but the pain stopped soon after we got off the plane.
We arrived in Orlando about 5:30pm American time and the first thing we had to do was to go and collect our luggage. Then we headed downstairs to find the depot for Disney’s Magical Express which would take us to Walt Disney World and our hotel.
Luckily all our suitcases appeared on the conveyor belt so had no problems there, so we went off to the Magical Express check-in place. By the queue area that you walked down to get to the buses there was a red carpet so we felt very privileged and like celebrities walking along it.
Everything was working out right for once and falling into place.
So, after we checked in we got on the bus and it wasn’t long before we arrived at the hotel we were staying at which was called Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. In case you hadn’t guessed by the title it was all themed like the Caribbean. The hotel was massive and split into sections named after Caribbean islands. We were in block 44 of the Jamaica area. It was so big though that from reception we had to get a minibus to take us to the area we were in.
As you can probably imagine, we were all rather tired so almost straight after we had unpacked everything, we got ready to go to bed. The room had two double beds so I got one all to myself. They were a lot more comfortable than the beds in the Travelodge the night before. The room was a lot bigger and spacious too.
TUESDAY MARCH 18TH 2008
Today was the first day in the parks. We were staying on site for 8 days excluding travel days, and we had 7 day passes to the parks. With this in mind, before we had left I had made a rough plan of the best way to cover everything we wanted to see.
However, before we made our way towards going to the first of the theme parks, it was time for Breakfast.
To get breakfast we had to go to an area called ‘Centertown’ which was situated in the middle of the whole resort area. To get there, we had to cross a bridge over the lake in the middle of the resort to get to the other side.
Inside Centertown was a food court that contained 5 small shops where you could order food. They changed what they had depending on the time of day.
For example at breakfast, one place you could get Omelettes, one place where you could get Mickey Mouse Waffles, one place where you could get Pancakes (which I had most days) and one place which was full of snacks. There was also a place that had delicious smoothies that mum had to drink most days. I ended up having rather sweet Minute Maid Apple juice most days. We noticed that everywhere you go, all the drinks were ones made by the Coca-Cola company.
For our first breakfast, I thought I’d try pancakes, and there was a choice of different ones so I had pancakes with bacon and maple syrup. There was also chocolate chip pancakes, or strawberry pancakes which mum and dad had quite a few times.
There were places to sit inside and outside, and as it was our first day we tried sitting outside, but we realised that it was a little windy so for rest of our stay, we had our breakfast inside.
After breakfast was over, we went back to the room, got ready and headed out to the bus stop near our block to go to the first park of our visit – Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
For the record, this park used to be known as Disney-MGM studios but changed its name at the beginning of this year.
We hadn’t made any dining reservations on this trip, and had heard that it was quite difficult to get into restaurants without reservations, so one of the first things we did once we got to the park and past security, was to go the restaurant we wanted to eat in that day to see if we could get in for later that day. The restaurant we wanted to go in was called 50’s Prime Time Café, when we spoke to the front desk they said they were fully booked but were accepting walk-ins and to come back at the time we wanted to eat, and they’d see if they could fit us in. So we agreed to do that.
Then we went across to the nearest attraction which happened to be the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. This was stunt show showcasing some of the typical stunts seen in an Indiana Jones film featuring stunt doubles that actually worked on the film. The show went on slightly longer than normal though because during one scene a ninja got injured and had to be taken off so there was long pause while the actors and crew decided what they were going to do.
After this was over we went to Sounds Dangerous starring Drew Carey which was very near the Indiana Jones entrance. No wonder we were able to walk in there almost straight away, it was the worst attraction we went to during our stay. It was supposed to be a 10 minute show showcasing audio effects but there was nothing to it. I think there were other people disappointed too.
Afterwards, we passed by Star Tours, a Star Wars ride, but that had a long wait time so we decided to go down to the Muppet Vision 3D show that was nearby. This was really funny, as there were a lot of 4D elements too, and saw the muppets interacting with the audience in the theatre too especially when they had to search for Bean Bunny, and the finale which involved Swedish Chef with a cannon.
Nearby the exit to the ride we saw Woody and Buzz from Toy Story doing a meet and greet. There was quite a long queue for them, but there were two Green Army Men from the film wandering about, and not many people seemed to be going to them, so I managed to get a photo with one of them and an autograph too, followed by a salute.
By this time, it was nearly time for the afternoon parade, so we went and found a good position. The parade was called Block Party Bash and featured characters from Disney/PIXAR films such as Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc, and The Incredibles. There were also dancers that stopped the parade to do amazing dances on trampolines to well-known party songs like Dancing In The Street and YMCA.
After that had finished, we were all feeling a little hungry by now, so decided we’d go and see if we could get into the 50’s Prime Time Café. When we got there we were told it would be a 30-45 minute wait, so we decided to wait it out, and it didn’t seem too long before our name was called.
Apart from it being themed to do with the 50’s, it was done like it was your own family member doing the cooking for you. Most of which were ‘moms’ but we had Uncle Dale serving us and he kept calling us his ‘little English cousins from across the sea’. Basically, the waiters and waitresses in the restaurant treated you like you were their children, and you got told off if you put your elbows on the table and moan at you if you didn’t eat all your food etc.
The food was typical home cooking style of food but was very nice, plus I reckon I ate the most sickliest sweet dessert in there of the whole holiday – ice cream sundae with popcorn, brownies, m&m’s and different sauces too. I also had a Cherry Sprite to drink, which I didn’t get anywhere else and it was so lovely and refreshing.
We also noticed that in each restaurant we went in, they were happy to give us free refills of drinks, whereas here they don’t do that.
As we hadn’t finished all our drinks in 50’s Prime Time Café, Uncle Dale said he’d put them into takeaway cups for us ‘but only as long as we wouldn’t need to keep going potty all the time!’ which made us laugh.
Once this was over we walked down the ‘Streets of America’ area, which was a road designed to look like New York, towards the Backlot Tour ride and went on that. We’d been on a similar ride at Walt Disney Studios in Paris but this was different as we saw different film props, but the Catastrophe Canyon bit was the same. This was where the tour train started to shake like an earthquake, loads of fire came up and then the whole train got covered in a flood. At this point it was starting to get dark.
Next, we went on The Great Movie Ride, which was a ride where you went round and saw displays of famous movies, with facts told by the tour guide. However there was a twist because once we got into the gangster movies section, the tour guide ended up in the middle of an attack by gangsters which meant our car got taken over by a Bugsy Malone type, who stayed throughout most of the ride, until the tour guide returned towards the end.
When we came off there, we realised it wasn’t long before the first showing of the evening stage show Fantasmic! So we went down to the entrance to the amphitheatre situated near Tower of Terror ride, to find a huge queue and cast members (that’s what they call people who work in the parks) telling people that that show was full but to come back later for the next one.
We decided to go to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid attraction which happened to be nearby before we’d go back in good time to get in for Fantasmic. The Voyage of the Little Mermaid is a 20 minute stage show featuring characters from the film The Little Mermaid.
Once that was over we looked in a couple of shops before heading back down to the Fantasmic amphitheatre. There was still a large queue, but we managed to get in this time and it was well worth the wait. I had read that the amphitheatre can hold 15,000 people in it.
The show features Mickey falling asleep and having dreams about Disney films until the villains attack and turn Mickey’s dreams into nightmares. So Mickey has to use all he can to fight against them, and wins. There were scenes on the stage involving The Lion King, and Pocahontas before the villains start their attack.
The show features a lot of special effects such as water screens that projected video clips, music, water and fire effects, and fireworks, and we all thought this was our favourite of all the evening events that were in the parks. After it was over, we all said that we’d like to see it again if possible.
After the show had finished, everyone started making their way to the exit as the park had also closed for the day as it was about 10:30pm at night. So we got on a bus and went back to our hotel, and went to bed ready for another exciting day in the parks.
WEDNESDAY MARCH 19TH 2008
Today we decided that we’d go to Magic Kingdom which was the first of the parks that was built at Walt Disney World, and because I knew it would be busier later in the week.
After breakfast, where mum and I tried Mickey waffles, of which I wasn’t very keen, we set off to Magic Kingdom.
It was also on this day where mum and I discovered the little pots of apple slices that were available. However, these weren’t any ordinary apple slices; these apple slices had caramel dipping sauce with them. We thought these were so delicious that we practically had them every day afterwards.
When we got to Magic Kingdom and passed through all the security checks, and into the main park in Main Street USA, it was about 11am. I was looking at the map, and the entertainment schedule and found out that a small parade was about begin soon called the Main Street Family Fun Day Parade. So we found a good position to be able to see it. It was a very patriotic parade, with all the Disney characters waving the United States flag, along with marching bands. It culminated with the Disney characters gathering round the town square of Main Street and dancing to USA anthems like Yankee Doodle Dandy, and also involved the raising of the American flag.
Once this was over, we decided we’d go on the Main Street railroad which took us all round the park, but we’d get off at Mickey’s Toontown Fair. I had decided it would be better to do the park in reverse and start with the last land first and work backwards, to try and avoid queues, but where ever we went it was still really busy.
In Toontown Fair, mum and I went on Goofy’s Barnstormer rollercoaster, before we all went to see what there was in Tomorrowland.
In Tomorrowland, dad and I went on Indy Speedway, where you drove a car round a race track. Afterwards, we had an ice cream, and got to try one of the famous Mickey Mouse ice creams, which is pretty much like a Magnum but shaped like Mickey Mouse.
Then we went Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, which was an interactive ride where you rode round and had to shoot at targets. This was followed by Carousel of Progress, which was an updated version of showcase that was invented by Walt Disney himself in the 60’s. It was a moving theatre that took you through time using animatronics showing how we have progressed with inventions since the turn of the century.
Afterwards, we went on Stitch’s Great Escape, which I can’t remember a lot about but involved Stitch escaping into the audience.
Then it was time to move on to Fantasyland which is next to Tomorrowland. The first ride we went on there was Mad Tea Party, which is a tea cup ride. Once we came off there, it was time to get into position for the afternoon parade. Because mum was in a wheelchair today, after being exhausted from the day before, we could get into the special area for disabled people, so had a really good view of the parade.
The parade was called Disney Dreams Come True Parade and featured floats of many of the classic Disney films, including the most recent one Enchanted.
I ended up taking lots of photos at this parade.
After this was over, I found out the Dream Along with Mickey stage show outside the Cinderella castle (the main centre of the park) and near to where we were would be starting soon, so we went over to watch that. This was a short show that featured Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy amongst other Disney characters. It was very pretty and including a couple of fireworks too.
Once this was over, we decided it was time for food. There didn’t seem to be that many restaurants in the Magic Kingdom, more places to have quick snacks or McDonald’s type places. However, we found a restaurant on Main Street called Tony’s Town Square Restaurant, which had a theme based on the film Lady and the Tramp.
This was a more posh restaurant than we had been in the day before, but it was very nice. The mains consisted of various different types of pastas but there were fish and meat dishes too.
Coming out of Tony’s we saw on the opposite side of the square, a very small queue of people waiting to see none other than Mr and Mrs Easter Bunny. So we went over, and got to have photos taken with them, and got their autographs too. Mum wanted to take some film of them too but for some reason the camera wouldn’t work. We found out later that it something had gone wrong inside it, so it wouldn’t work the rest of the holiday, however mum had managed to get some film of the days we had been there so far.
When we had finished there, we went back to Fantasyland to try and fit in some more attractions before the evening entertainment began.
The rides we covered were The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, a dark ride showing scenes from the stories, Snow White’s Scary Adventures, Peter Pan’s Flight and It’s A Small World. The latter three were similar to ones we had been on in Paris but were on a bigger scale.
We also went in Mickey’s PhilharMagic which was another 3D show but was really amazing. The show stars Donald Duck who uses Mickey’s sorcerer hat against his permission. Unfortunately this causes problems as a whirlwind appears and transports Donald in Disney films, and he has to chase through them to try and get Mickey’s hat back. There was one scene that featured Ariel from the Little Mermaid showing off her jewellery and it was so pretty it felt like you could reach out and touch the jewels.
By the time, we had finished all those attractions it was about 9:40pm, so we decided it would be a good idea to go and find a place where we would be able to see the Wishes Fireworks Spectacular at 10pm. We managed to get a place to the right of the Castle in some gardens, and was quite a good view. We thought the fireworks were very pretty. After they had finished, we moved over to the same spot we were in earlier for the afternoon parade, ready for the evening parade – Spectromagic.
Again, this was very very pretty and was one of our favourite parades. This featured floats covered in colourful lights. Each float changed from coloured to just white lights, and even some of the characters who went by like Snow White and Dwarfs had lights on their costumes too.
One thing that made me laugh was that whilst we were waiting for the parade to begin, my dad said ‘I thought I might be able to have an early night tonight, but obviously not.’ I replied back ‘Hello? We’re In Walt Disney World, there is no such thing as early nights here!’
After the Spectromagic parade had finished however, we made our way to the exit and got the bus back to the hotel. We knew we hadn’t seen everything in the park, but planned we’d go back there later in the week.
I'm new here, only discovered this site quite recently, and so been lurking on here for a while. Now I've decided to join and share with you my trip report from my first ever visit to Walt Disney World with my parents at Easter this year. I'm already planning our next visit - hopefully September 2009. :lol:
We were very lucky in the fact that we had no idea of the dining situation before we went. We had the dining plan though, but didn't realise about the ADR's and all that, but luckily managed to get walk-ups in practically all the restaurants.
I ought to add, the following trip report was written and sent to various members of the family, so there's a lot of explaining about different attractions and stuff.
Walt Disney World is for me the holiday of a lifetime. Ever since I can remember I’ve wished to go there, and now after years of waiting, the time had finally come. I may be 19 but I still got as excited about it as a little boy.[/FONT]
To cover the whole holiday fully, I ought to start at the very beginning, as that is a very good place to start, and so it all started on Sunday 16th March 2008.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…
SUNDAY MARCH 16TH 2008.
We were down for actually flying to Orlando on Monday morning, but we realised that to get to the airport on time for check-in, we’d have to travel down about 4am in the morning, so it made much more sense to travel down and stay in the Travelodge hotel right near Gatwick airport overnight, so we didn’t need to rush in the morning.
So, we left the house about 4:30pm and travelled down to the hotel, and arrived there about 7:30pm ish.
Once we had checked-in we went to our room, to find it absolutely freezing cold. Also, the room contained only one double bed for mum and dad, so I was expected to sleep on a sofa in the room. The only problem was there happened to be no bedclothes. There was also no soap in the bathroom. All this combined with the rotten rainy weather outside – it was not a pleasant experience, however, we spoken to reception and they brought us some bedclothes, soap and a radiator for the room.
Once we’d sorted ourselves out and settled down to sleep, all of us had a restless and uncomfortable night, particularly me sleeping on the sofa as it felt as hard as possible so I had backache in the morning, from the uncomfortableness of it and the fact I couldn’t stretch out that well either. We hoped this was only a bad start and things would get better.
MONDAY MARCH 17TH 2008
First of all was Breakfast. As with problems with the room, there were problems with the breakfast. It was a fried breakfast of which you helped yourself too; however the remainder that was left was rather tasteless. There weren’t any plates, bowls or cups out anywhere so had to ask a so-called waiter, who went and came back with just the amount for the people in your party. Also, mum had a yoghurt which meant she used her only spoon, but needed another one for cereal, so she asked the waiter who caused a fuss by saying she’d already got one spoon so why did she need another one? Also, all the bowls, plates etc that were brought out from the kitchen were boiling hot, so overall it wasn’t a good breakfast.
Once that was over, we gathered together everything and set off to Gatwick airport. First of all we parked the car in the airport car park, and got on a bus to take us to the terminal. When we got there, we checked in, handed over our luggage, and headed over to security. Before we got there we had to put all liquids and creams we had in our hand luggage into clear plastic bags, not sure why. In the security area we had to put almost everything on us into boxes, dad and I were wearing belts and had to take them off because they would apparently set off the alarm.
After that was done, we had some time to look round the shops in the terminal before our plane left at about 11:30am.
On the plane, in-between the receiving of the complementary food and drinks, I managed to watch some things on the little TV on the back of the seats. Both mum and I watched the film ‘Enchanted’ which is the latest Disney film and I watched episodes of Robin Hood and Heroes, and played some games too. I also listened to my MP3 player for a while too.
It wasn’t long before the 8 ½ hours passed, but as the plane came down in Orlando my ears went really deaf and hurt quite a bit, but the pain stopped soon after we got off the plane.
We arrived in Orlando about 5:30pm American time and the first thing we had to do was to go and collect our luggage. Then we headed downstairs to find the depot for Disney’s Magical Express which would take us to Walt Disney World and our hotel.
Luckily all our suitcases appeared on the conveyor belt so had no problems there, so we went off to the Magical Express check-in place. By the queue area that you walked down to get to the buses there was a red carpet so we felt very privileged and like celebrities walking along it.
Everything was working out right for once and falling into place.
So, after we checked in we got on the bus and it wasn’t long before we arrived at the hotel we were staying at which was called Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. In case you hadn’t guessed by the title it was all themed like the Caribbean. The hotel was massive and split into sections named after Caribbean islands. We were in block 44 of the Jamaica area. It was so big though that from reception we had to get a minibus to take us to the area we were in.
As you can probably imagine, we were all rather tired so almost straight after we had unpacked everything, we got ready to go to bed. The room had two double beds so I got one all to myself. They were a lot more comfortable than the beds in the Travelodge the night before. The room was a lot bigger and spacious too.
TUESDAY MARCH 18TH 2008
Today was the first day in the parks. We were staying on site for 8 days excluding travel days, and we had 7 day passes to the parks. With this in mind, before we had left I had made a rough plan of the best way to cover everything we wanted to see.
However, before we made our way towards going to the first of the theme parks, it was time for Breakfast.
To get breakfast we had to go to an area called ‘Centertown’ which was situated in the middle of the whole resort area. To get there, we had to cross a bridge over the lake in the middle of the resort to get to the other side.
Inside Centertown was a food court that contained 5 small shops where you could order food. They changed what they had depending on the time of day.
For example at breakfast, one place you could get Omelettes, one place where you could get Mickey Mouse Waffles, one place where you could get Pancakes (which I had most days) and one place which was full of snacks. There was also a place that had delicious smoothies that mum had to drink most days. I ended up having rather sweet Minute Maid Apple juice most days. We noticed that everywhere you go, all the drinks were ones made by the Coca-Cola company.
For our first breakfast, I thought I’d try pancakes, and there was a choice of different ones so I had pancakes with bacon and maple syrup. There was also chocolate chip pancakes, or strawberry pancakes which mum and dad had quite a few times.
There were places to sit inside and outside, and as it was our first day we tried sitting outside, but we realised that it was a little windy so for rest of our stay, we had our breakfast inside.
After breakfast was over, we went back to the room, got ready and headed out to the bus stop near our block to go to the first park of our visit – Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
For the record, this park used to be known as Disney-MGM studios but changed its name at the beginning of this year.
We hadn’t made any dining reservations on this trip, and had heard that it was quite difficult to get into restaurants without reservations, so one of the first things we did once we got to the park and past security, was to go the restaurant we wanted to eat in that day to see if we could get in for later that day. The restaurant we wanted to go in was called 50’s Prime Time Café, when we spoke to the front desk they said they were fully booked but were accepting walk-ins and to come back at the time we wanted to eat, and they’d see if they could fit us in. So we agreed to do that.
Then we went across to the nearest attraction which happened to be the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. This was stunt show showcasing some of the typical stunts seen in an Indiana Jones film featuring stunt doubles that actually worked on the film. The show went on slightly longer than normal though because during one scene a ninja got injured and had to be taken off so there was long pause while the actors and crew decided what they were going to do.
After this was over we went to Sounds Dangerous starring Drew Carey which was very near the Indiana Jones entrance. No wonder we were able to walk in there almost straight away, it was the worst attraction we went to during our stay. It was supposed to be a 10 minute show showcasing audio effects but there was nothing to it. I think there were other people disappointed too.
Afterwards, we passed by Star Tours, a Star Wars ride, but that had a long wait time so we decided to go down to the Muppet Vision 3D show that was nearby. This was really funny, as there were a lot of 4D elements too, and saw the muppets interacting with the audience in the theatre too especially when they had to search for Bean Bunny, and the finale which involved Swedish Chef with a cannon.
Nearby the exit to the ride we saw Woody and Buzz from Toy Story doing a meet and greet. There was quite a long queue for them, but there were two Green Army Men from the film wandering about, and not many people seemed to be going to them, so I managed to get a photo with one of them and an autograph too, followed by a salute.
By this time, it was nearly time for the afternoon parade, so we went and found a good position. The parade was called Block Party Bash and featured characters from Disney/PIXAR films such as Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc, and The Incredibles. There were also dancers that stopped the parade to do amazing dances on trampolines to well-known party songs like Dancing In The Street and YMCA.
After that had finished, we were all feeling a little hungry by now, so decided we’d go and see if we could get into the 50’s Prime Time Café. When we got there we were told it would be a 30-45 minute wait, so we decided to wait it out, and it didn’t seem too long before our name was called.
Apart from it being themed to do with the 50’s, it was done like it was your own family member doing the cooking for you. Most of which were ‘moms’ but we had Uncle Dale serving us and he kept calling us his ‘little English cousins from across the sea’. Basically, the waiters and waitresses in the restaurant treated you like you were their children, and you got told off if you put your elbows on the table and moan at you if you didn’t eat all your food etc.
The food was typical home cooking style of food but was very nice, plus I reckon I ate the most sickliest sweet dessert in there of the whole holiday – ice cream sundae with popcorn, brownies, m&m’s and different sauces too. I also had a Cherry Sprite to drink, which I didn’t get anywhere else and it was so lovely and refreshing.
We also noticed that in each restaurant we went in, they were happy to give us free refills of drinks, whereas here they don’t do that.
As we hadn’t finished all our drinks in 50’s Prime Time Café, Uncle Dale said he’d put them into takeaway cups for us ‘but only as long as we wouldn’t need to keep going potty all the time!’ which made us laugh.
Once this was over we walked down the ‘Streets of America’ area, which was a road designed to look like New York, towards the Backlot Tour ride and went on that. We’d been on a similar ride at Walt Disney Studios in Paris but this was different as we saw different film props, but the Catastrophe Canyon bit was the same. This was where the tour train started to shake like an earthquake, loads of fire came up and then the whole train got covered in a flood. At this point it was starting to get dark.
Next, we went on The Great Movie Ride, which was a ride where you went round and saw displays of famous movies, with facts told by the tour guide. However there was a twist because once we got into the gangster movies section, the tour guide ended up in the middle of an attack by gangsters which meant our car got taken over by a Bugsy Malone type, who stayed throughout most of the ride, until the tour guide returned towards the end.
When we came off there, we realised it wasn’t long before the first showing of the evening stage show Fantasmic! So we went down to the entrance to the amphitheatre situated near Tower of Terror ride, to find a huge queue and cast members (that’s what they call people who work in the parks) telling people that that show was full but to come back later for the next one.
We decided to go to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid attraction which happened to be nearby before we’d go back in good time to get in for Fantasmic. The Voyage of the Little Mermaid is a 20 minute stage show featuring characters from the film The Little Mermaid.
Once that was over we looked in a couple of shops before heading back down to the Fantasmic amphitheatre. There was still a large queue, but we managed to get in this time and it was well worth the wait. I had read that the amphitheatre can hold 15,000 people in it.
The show features Mickey falling asleep and having dreams about Disney films until the villains attack and turn Mickey’s dreams into nightmares. So Mickey has to use all he can to fight against them, and wins. There were scenes on the stage involving The Lion King, and Pocahontas before the villains start their attack.
The show features a lot of special effects such as water screens that projected video clips, music, water and fire effects, and fireworks, and we all thought this was our favourite of all the evening events that were in the parks. After it was over, we all said that we’d like to see it again if possible.
After the show had finished, everyone started making their way to the exit as the park had also closed for the day as it was about 10:30pm at night. So we got on a bus and went back to our hotel, and went to bed ready for another exciting day in the parks.
WEDNESDAY MARCH 19TH 2008
Today we decided that we’d go to Magic Kingdom which was the first of the parks that was built at Walt Disney World, and because I knew it would be busier later in the week.
After breakfast, where mum and I tried Mickey waffles, of which I wasn’t very keen, we set off to Magic Kingdom.
It was also on this day where mum and I discovered the little pots of apple slices that were available. However, these weren’t any ordinary apple slices; these apple slices had caramel dipping sauce with them. We thought these were so delicious that we practically had them every day afterwards.
When we got to Magic Kingdom and passed through all the security checks, and into the main park in Main Street USA, it was about 11am. I was looking at the map, and the entertainment schedule and found out that a small parade was about begin soon called the Main Street Family Fun Day Parade. So we found a good position to be able to see it. It was a very patriotic parade, with all the Disney characters waving the United States flag, along with marching bands. It culminated with the Disney characters gathering round the town square of Main Street and dancing to USA anthems like Yankee Doodle Dandy, and also involved the raising of the American flag.
Once this was over, we decided we’d go on the Main Street railroad which took us all round the park, but we’d get off at Mickey’s Toontown Fair. I had decided it would be better to do the park in reverse and start with the last land first and work backwards, to try and avoid queues, but where ever we went it was still really busy.
In Toontown Fair, mum and I went on Goofy’s Barnstormer rollercoaster, before we all went to see what there was in Tomorrowland.
In Tomorrowland, dad and I went on Indy Speedway, where you drove a car round a race track. Afterwards, we had an ice cream, and got to try one of the famous Mickey Mouse ice creams, which is pretty much like a Magnum but shaped like Mickey Mouse.
Then we went Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, which was an interactive ride where you rode round and had to shoot at targets. This was followed by Carousel of Progress, which was an updated version of showcase that was invented by Walt Disney himself in the 60’s. It was a moving theatre that took you through time using animatronics showing how we have progressed with inventions since the turn of the century.
Afterwards, we went on Stitch’s Great Escape, which I can’t remember a lot about but involved Stitch escaping into the audience.
Then it was time to move on to Fantasyland which is next to Tomorrowland. The first ride we went on there was Mad Tea Party, which is a tea cup ride. Once we came off there, it was time to get into position for the afternoon parade. Because mum was in a wheelchair today, after being exhausted from the day before, we could get into the special area for disabled people, so had a really good view of the parade.
The parade was called Disney Dreams Come True Parade and featured floats of many of the classic Disney films, including the most recent one Enchanted.
I ended up taking lots of photos at this parade.
After this was over, I found out the Dream Along with Mickey stage show outside the Cinderella castle (the main centre of the park) and near to where we were would be starting soon, so we went over to watch that. This was a short show that featured Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy amongst other Disney characters. It was very pretty and including a couple of fireworks too.
Once this was over, we decided it was time for food. There didn’t seem to be that many restaurants in the Magic Kingdom, more places to have quick snacks or McDonald’s type places. However, we found a restaurant on Main Street called Tony’s Town Square Restaurant, which had a theme based on the film Lady and the Tramp.
This was a more posh restaurant than we had been in the day before, but it was very nice. The mains consisted of various different types of pastas but there were fish and meat dishes too.
Coming out of Tony’s we saw on the opposite side of the square, a very small queue of people waiting to see none other than Mr and Mrs Easter Bunny. So we went over, and got to have photos taken with them, and got their autographs too. Mum wanted to take some film of them too but for some reason the camera wouldn’t work. We found out later that it something had gone wrong inside it, so it wouldn’t work the rest of the holiday, however mum had managed to get some film of the days we had been there so far.
When we had finished there, we went back to Fantasyland to try and fit in some more attractions before the evening entertainment began.
The rides we covered were The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, a dark ride showing scenes from the stories, Snow White’s Scary Adventures, Peter Pan’s Flight and It’s A Small World. The latter three were similar to ones we had been on in Paris but were on a bigger scale.
We also went in Mickey’s PhilharMagic which was another 3D show but was really amazing. The show stars Donald Duck who uses Mickey’s sorcerer hat against his permission. Unfortunately this causes problems as a whirlwind appears and transports Donald in Disney films, and he has to chase through them to try and get Mickey’s hat back. There was one scene that featured Ariel from the Little Mermaid showing off her jewellery and it was so pretty it felt like you could reach out and touch the jewels.
By the time, we had finished all those attractions it was about 9:40pm, so we decided it would be a good idea to go and find a place where we would be able to see the Wishes Fireworks Spectacular at 10pm. We managed to get a place to the right of the Castle in some gardens, and was quite a good view. We thought the fireworks were very pretty. After they had finished, we moved over to the same spot we were in earlier for the afternoon parade, ready for the evening parade – Spectromagic.
Again, this was very very pretty and was one of our favourite parades. This featured floats covered in colourful lights. Each float changed from coloured to just white lights, and even some of the characters who went by like Snow White and Dwarfs had lights on their costumes too.
One thing that made me laugh was that whilst we were waiting for the parade to begin, my dad said ‘I thought I might be able to have an early night tonight, but obviously not.’ I replied back ‘Hello? We’re In Walt Disney World, there is no such thing as early nights here!’
After the Spectromagic parade had finished however, we made our way to the exit and got the bus back to the hotel. We knew we hadn’t seen everything in the park, but planned we’d go back there later in the week.
