Fizzle 75's FIRST TRIP REPORT!!!

Ok, just to clarify, this is my first TRIP REPORT not my FIRST TRIP report. Make sense? Good, let's move on...

Let me preface by saying that this trip did not go at all as planned due to my wife getting sick and me not feeling well either but nonetheless we had a good time just not a GREAT time. Oh well, a bad day at Disney is still better than a good day at work!

I tend to be very wordy and this report will contain lots of photos so please bear with me...
I also may have to do this in seperate segments throughout the day as I have time.

Here goes...

Saturday April 14th:

We leave our little town of Cashiers, NC and head for Greenville, SC at around 8:00am to catch our 11:45am flight. We grab a quick breakfast at McDonalds in Pickens, SC and arrive in Greenville at around 10:15. I was worried about going through security because this was my first trip with a CPAP machine since being diagnosed with Sleep Apnea around two months ago but, thankfully, everything went very fast and smoothly, they just unzipped the case that my CPAP was in and swabbed it and then let me go on my merry way. Greenville airport was dead so that helped speed things along as well.

We boarded the plane at around 11:30 and were actually lifting off of the runway at exactly 11:45. We arrived at Orlando International at around 1:00.

We have used Disney's Magical Express on every trip but this was the first time we have had any trouble. The lines for Magical Express were absolutely packed, all except for ours that is. Our line, the one for Saratoga Springs, only had seven people in it. We proceded to wait for over thirty minutes for them to let us board the Magical Express, in the meantime, the lines for all of the other resorts were moving very quickly. As you can imagine, we got a little frustrated but since all of our other Magical express experiences went very smoothly we didn't think that much of it. The girl in front of us on the other hand was absolutely having a hissy fit of epic proportions. She was causing quite the comotion and we were very embarrassed to be in the same line as her. The whole time I was thinking "if she's freaking out over a thirty minute line at the airport,she's gonna be a mental case once she gets in the parks".

We finally boarded the Magical Express and were on our way to Saratoga Springs. Just as we were reaching the resort, our bus driver(who looked very young to me and I am assuming he hadn't been driving a bus long at all) ran up on one of the curbs in a curve and got the bus stuck. After a few minutes of hitting the gas and break to rock the bus back and forth we finally got unstuck but the driver ended up severely warping several panels near the wheel well of the bus. I felt horrible for him but needless to say, the girl who was freaking out at the airport was acting like Linda Blair in the Excorcist. I'm serious, her head was spinning around and she was shooting green vomit all over the bus. It was really gross. We finally got to the main lobby of Saratoga around 2:30 or so and we got to follow Linda Blair all of the way. She was fuming and fussing all of the way to the lobby and proceded to freak out on the receptionist at the check in desk and tell her how horrible her trip had been so far. Luckily, no vomit was involved this time though. I had finally had enough so I shot her an evil look and then said " aw,come on, it wasn't that bad at all" and rolled my eyes at her. I wanted to say more but her boyfriend had two or three more muscles than I do and I didn't want to spend our vacation in a body cast. Space Mountain would have been really rough in a body cast.

ANYHOO...we finally got checked in and by that time we were famished so we went to The Artist's Pallette for lunch. It was quite good, I was surprised.
We then began to tour the resort. I must admit, I wasn't looking forward to staying at Saratoga Springs. We had went to a DVC presentation there almost exactly a year ago and weren't all that impressed. It just didn't feel like Disney to us. As we began to walk around the resort I was pleasantly suprised at how nice the resort is. True, the Disney theme isn't very strong(except for the occassional hidden mickey and pictures of all of the famous Disney horses on the wall in the main lobby) but the Equestrian theme that they are shooting for is incorporated very well into everything. It's a gorgeous place, I was quite impressed. We ended up touring the Animal Kindgom Villa that they have set up at the DVC preview center there at Saratoga. The AKL Villas look absolutely gorgeous, I can't wait. I have included a few pictures below for your viewing pleasure along with pictures of our room and pictures of Saratoga Springs Resort. We stayed in The Grandstand.

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That's all for now. Coming up...Animal Kingdom Villas,EPCOT, Beautiful topiaries , and Le Cellier!

Sorry, no pictures of the hateful vomit spewing girl.
 

fizzle75

New Member
Original Poster
For some reason on webshots all of my pictures have the same address so when I copy and paste them they just all show up as the same picture. I am pretty computer illiterate so I am clueless as to what I can do to fix it. I have also tried going back to photobucket which is where most of my pictures are uploaded but for some reason I can't get into it from my laptop or my pc. Any suggestions? I'm itching to continue this report but until I can get this whole picture situation resolved I'm kinda stalled. Also, when I uploaded my photos to webshots it took FOREVER!!!
 

ErickainPA

New Member
All the pics are different on my screen, not sure if others are still having a problem.

(I use photobucket because snapfish doesn't allow hotlinking on message boards any longer)
 

fizzle75

New Member
Original Poster
Sunday, April 15th...

We got up around 7:30 and made it to the bus stop at around 8:30. We could have made it there sooner but I was having a really bad hairday and I couldn't do a thing with it. It must be all of that Florida humidity. I noticed it was very cloudy as we waited for the bus and as soon as we stepped on the bus the skies opened and it began to poor. It was a real frog strangler. Here's a pic from one of the bus stops...
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We got to the Magic Kingdom around 9:00 and it was still coming down in buckets. It was raining cats and dogs, i think i even stepped in a poodle or two(sorry, i know that was bad).The Magic Kingdom seemed like a ghost town, I guess everyone was at the Haunted Mansion.:shrug:

Here's a few pics of Main Street as we made our way to the Main Street Bakery to grab a quick breakfast...
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We have walked by this statue many times and even had our picture taken there several times but it wasn't until this trip that I noticed that the statue was of Roy Disney(Walt's brother)and not Walt, I guess I had never taken time to read the inscriptions on the plaques beside him. I guess this finally explains why this statue always looked nothing like Walt to me.
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We ate breakfast at the Main Street Bakery and as we were paying for our food the older gentleman who was running the cash register(his name was Jack)began joking with my wife because her Pirates Of THe Carribbean shirt said "I Love Jack", he had a great sense of humor and was very friendly. He really lightened up a dreary, rainy day. During our meal there were several things we needed assistance with(I can't really remember what)and several of the other CMs were very rude and unhelpful so we went to jack and he was extremely helpful. On our way out I told my wife to say "I knew I loved Jack for a reason" and when she did he almost fell over laughing. We talked for a few more minutes and as we started to walk away he told us to hang on a minute. He reached into his pocket and pulled out two special edition tinker bell pins and as he gave them to my wife he told us that it is people like us who make Disney Magical and he thanked us for being so nice. I started to tear up as I told him thank you and I told him that people like HIM are what make Disney so magical. We walked outside grinning from ear to ear as we stood in the rain admiring our new pins. Thanks Jack, for making our day and reminding us that one amazing person can make even the rainiest of days a beautiful one.

From there we headed to tomorrowland...
 

fizzle75

New Member
Original Poster
After we left the Main Street Bakery we headed over to Tomorrowland. We have never done all of tomorrowland in one trip and I was determined to do so this time. It was still raining pretty heavy and the crowds were light so this really helped us to tour tomorrowland more thoroughly. It was raining so heavy and it was coming down so fast that the drains were backing up and most of Tomorrowland was a huge ankle deep puddle(no, I'm not gonna say poodle again,i'm still embarassed about the last time). The first thing we hit was MILF. I was incredibly anxious to see this show since it was being trashed so hard on these boards. It is by no means a great attraction but it is enjoyable nonetheless. My main problem is that the two biggest draws of this attraction are it's weakest points...the animation and the jokes. Most of the audience were laughing hysterically though so I think it will do well. I think the qeue area is very well done, I especially enjoyed the following...
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From there we went to SGE. I must say, I enjoy SGE. Like MILF it isn't a great attraction but it is enjoyable nonetheless. Next we finally did TTA. In four trips I had never done TTA so I was determined to this time. I really enjoyed it, it is a nice enjoyable and relaxing ride. While on TTA I saw Buzz Lightyear outside of Carrousel of Progress so we hurried over to get our picture taken with him. Don't worry, we waited for the ride to stop before we got out.
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After Buzz we did Carrousel of Progress. I love this attraction, a true classic. I hope the rumours of it's demise are greatly exaggerated. After COP we did Space Ranger Spin. I totally stink at it but I really enjoy this ride, it makes me long for Midway Mania. Before we left to find some grub we rode Space Mountain. I love this ride but I am extremely susceptible to motion sickness and this ride always tears me up. After SM I was definitely ready for lunch so we set out for Columbia Harbor House. Here are some random pics of Tomorrowland...
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fizzle75

New Member
Original Poster
On our way to eat at Columbia Harbor House we noticed the line for Mickey's Philharmagic was very short so we couldn't resist. I absolutely love Mickey's Philharmagic, it is one of my absolute favorites. I snapped this pic in the gift shop afterwards, I had somehow never noticed it before...
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Here's a pic of the Castle that I snapped along the way...
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We had never eaten at Columbia Harbor house and one of the things we had vowed to do on this trip was to eat mostly at places we hadn't been to before. I really enjoyed CHH, it's no Long John Silver's but it was still good. Coming from the mountains of North Carolina I was raised on sweet tea and I can't live without it, Momma put it in my bottle when I was a baby, I put it in cereal, on pancakes and I've even considered being hooked up to an Iced Tea IV. I say all of this to say...one of my only complaints about WDW is the lack of SWEET TEA! But guess what? COLUMBIA HARBOUR HOUSE HAS SWEET TEA!!! I was as happy as a pig eatin' slop, I now know where I can go for my Sweet Tea fix!:sohappy: Does anyone know of any other place in WDW where you can get Sweet Tea?

I snapped this pic on the way to CHH. Can anyone tell me what the brown building on the hill is? Can you actually go in it? It is a beautiful building. It is right beside It's A Small World.
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I snapped this pic from the upstairs dining area of CHH. CHH is a beautiful restaurant in my opinion. The architecture is very well done and the theming is excellent.
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Afte lunch we found a good spot for the Dream Along With Mickey show and enjoyed a breathtaking view of the castle.
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ilovepluto23

New Member
I snapped this pic on the way to CHH. Can anyone tell me what the brown building on the hill is? Can you actually go in it? It is a beautiful building. It is right beside It's A Small World.
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It used to be a sky lift station. The sky lift ride took you to Tomorrowland. They got rid of the ride I think maybe about 10 years ago. I'm not exactly sure why. A few years ago it was being used as a character meet and greet. I remember seeing Dopey and Snow White there. Now, it's just a little stroller parking area. You can't go in the building.
 

shari71

New Member
I snapped this pic on the way to CHH. Can anyone tell me what the brown building on the hill is? Can you actually go in it? It is a beautiful building. It is right beside It's A Small World.

This used to be a skyway...don't remember the name exactly, but it has been closed for many years.
 

LeeSeeBabe

Active Member
I snapped this pic on the way to CHH. Can anyone tell me what the brown building on the hill is? Can you actually go in it? It is a beautiful building. It is right beside It's A Small World.

The Skyway ride Queue used to be in there, and that opening is where the trains used to come out of.
 

Bug715

Member
I remember riding the sky lift. When the castle was the cake some of our friends went and they took our camera and we took theirs to get a picture of the families with the castle cake. Which looked way cooler as a kid than they do now looking at pictures on here.

I'm loving the update!
 

smk

Well-Known Member
Loving the update! I am hanging on everyword.....I miss WDW very much and I love to read trip reports!
 

KnK

New Member
The first night we mostly just walked around looking at topiaries until our reservations at Le Cellier at 9:00. I had never eaten there before and was very anxious to since I have heard so many good things about it on these boards. I was not dissappointed. Fantastic meal and great atmosphere. They had a special ceremony for some of the Canadian students working there. This was their last night there and they were giving them a special send off. They sang the Canadian national anthem and several other Canadian songs. Oddly enough, they never sang Blame Canada! Hmmm...

Love the South Park reference!
 

fizzle75

New Member
Original Poster
Sorry folks, things have been crazy since we got back from our trip and I am finding it hard to make time to finish my report. I am off on Friday so I hope to finish it then. Thanks for hangin' in!:wave:

Matt
 

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