Going Pro Trip Report, May 7-15 2011

Hey! It's a trip report! Like most WDW enthusiasts I love reading these things (though I seldom leave lurk mode long enough to comment...sorry), and with 32 hours left until we leave the driveway now might be a good time to commence my very first. I aim to please. There will be pictures of both Things and Food.

Background--
This can be known as both the It's About Flipping Time Extravaganza Trip and the Going Pro Trip. The stage was set last time, which took place during "Heck" Week (aka Christmas-New Year's) 2006. This was the Consolation Prize Trip from arising from the sale of our home after a messy divorce. I voted WDW for our destination because I always acknowledged it as the premier vacation, being a longtime enthusiast of amusement and whimsy.

Despite the many hardships of being relative n00bs who did not understand the proper utilization of ADRs, Fastpass, and park hopping, and despite the 2-hour waits for PotC and the relentless, inescapable wailing of New Year's horns handed out at 4 PM, we had fun. In fact, upon arriving home I decided WDW would be my new obsession, and I don't do anything halfway (though I do write papers 2/3 of the way). Happily, I found this website along with AllEars, MouseSavers, etc. and eventually became a certifiable Disney Parks fan and amateur vacation planner, capable of making obtuse references to attraction design and ticket pricing in the most irrelevant conversations...

So in March 2009, tired of constantly informing various parents of new PIN codes to no effect, I decided to go on a solo 4 night tent camping trip at Fort Wilderness in January or May 2010. With months of planning, saving, and wheedling, it somehow morphed into an 8 night/9 day/6 park Mom n' Me extravaganza at Port Orleans-Riverside, May 7-15, planned into the ground, with 5 ADRs and 6 Touring Plans (that's including IoA and US, we are big Universal fans, and unashamed).

Now I have recently learned the dangers of planning a trip so far in advance with news of Grad Nites, 400 random new weekend events, and love bugs. I also spent 3 madcap days last weekend in gorgeous, wonderful Florida for my equestrian team's Nationals and came home (eventually, thanks to Delta) to grey weather, three exams, two papers, and the threat of not passing one of my capstone courses due to lack of group involvement. Fought the urge all week to write only "don't care, going to Disney World" on everything I turned in. But now that's all just about over and it's time to clean house, pack, and face the reality that the waiting is finally over...

Players--

Me: 21, college senior (film/TV production & theory) and cafeteria worker (<3 my job), enamored with Disney World, general Disney fan to lesser extent. Interests: horses/dressage, music, Sci-fi and crude adult cartoons, feminism, artifice, and reading way to far into things, from movies to stop signs and especially theme parks.

Mom aka BFF: mom age, some sort of accounting assistant (<3s her job), pleasantly entertained by Disney World, somewhat amused by Disney in general. Interests: cheesy '80s rock bands, Feng Shui, natural diets, and a bunch of other hippie stuff I grew out of by age 16. My mother can be difficult to predict. I'll show her something I think is awesome and get the smile/nod, and then write off something simple that she thinks is AMAZING. Theme parks tend to make this differentiation quite obvious.

So. I have to say, after 26 months of planning, 541 days on the trip countdown, 125 links on a paper chain, and this last ridiculous week, I don't know if I'm actually excited anymore. It must be time for a Wishes youtube marathon.

Soon I will get a Flickr account to maintain your interest via photographs while avoiding the Internet ghetto that is Photobucket. The adventure will continue.

 

[Frightful]

Day 1.5, Saturday Night

7:53 PM Planned on dinner at T-Rex Cafe. Wanted to get going before sunset, but it took a bit longer than planned to get ready to go. That happens with women. The courtyard looked fantastic

We wanted to take the boat to DTD because it is cool and unique. However, it was a Saturday night with every park closing by 9 PM and everyone else had the same idea. So yeah, we waited in line about 40 minutes. I know we should have abandoned it for the bus, but you get in these mental states ("I've waited this long!")... at least the resort was pretty...

...if a bit tilted to the left.

8:00 PM Crowds were ridiculous at DTD. We really wanted to do T-Rex so we squeezed over there and checked out the damage. They told us 1 hour, so we looked around the store and they called us about 25 minutes later. We were seated next to the Octopus Bar and Ice Cave.

(First animatronic dinosaurs of the trip! It's really not a vacation until you see some of these.)

We both ordered the Brachiosaurus Bruschetta and Triassic Tortellini with low expectations and found them to be more than adequate. Forgot to take food pics before ravaging the dishes, so I'll spare you. I also ordered a "Cotton-tini" in which they put a waft of cotton candy in a glass and pour alcohol over it. I found this a delightful spectacle, and I do prefer my alcohol to taste like candy, so it was a win-win.

That turned out to be the only adult beverage I ordered for the trip. It wasn't my intention, but at least I saved money--for the next trip.

Service was great and restaurant was entertaining. The meteor showers were cool, but I felt kinda bad for the dinosaurs who live in fear for all of their faux lives. The most amusing thing that happened was actually our surprise visit from a very friendly and very inebriated young woman from the next table over. That attended to, we began the long journey home.

10:50 PM I had to pause to admire the firefly-blinky trees and stare incredulously at the little carousel playing the Baroque Hoedown, which turned out to be the week's theme song. The bus took a while, was packed to the seams, and took 800 years to leave DTD. Having not planned on such a late night, we decided to skip the food court the next morning in exchange for extra sleep. This became a trend. I felt bad about our transportation issues and the poor planning on my part, but after a ridiculously perfect day it was inevitable. And dinner was fun.

Next stop, Mothers' Day and Animal Kingdom.

 

[grwnupprincess]

love this pic with main street reflected in the balloon!! very cool effect!

 

[Frightful]

love this pic with main street reflected in the balloon!! very cool effect!

Thanks I should adjust the colors but I'm not doing that for 1,878 pictures (yeah, 1,878).

Hey derelicte19, when did you eat at CP? We did on May 13th. And thanks polymissy, they have been really fun, and a ton of work.



Ok so... Sunday May 8th, Mother's Day

8:30 AM or so, a very crowded bus headed to Animal Kingdom arrives at the East Depot. We meant to leave earlier, but meh. Breakfast is a Clif bar and homemade trail mix, respectively. There was some sort of triathlon going on so traffic was re-routed and we didn't make rope drop.

9:00 AM Headed through the turnstiles. Carnations were being offered to mothers and I insisted that mine take one, although as she predicted it did not hold up to a day of hardcore touring. As discussed ahead of time, I took our KTTWs on a deadly serious Fastpass run (our first!) to Expedition: Everest while Mom walked at a more normal pace to Dinoland USA. There were so many people I had a brief panic moment about missing EMHs, but apparently it was just busy. I've never actually been to a park RIGHT at opening. I took a glance at the tree on the way, and also got some classy direct photos of the sun, as well as my camera strap.

The FPs were for 10:40-11:40 as I recall. Nice. I arrived at ***TriceraTop Spin just as my mom did. Mom loves Dumbo and once marked all the spinners in Orlando as "must-dos" on this list I made, then later retracted the statement. I set up this meeting place to verify whether she really wanted to ride it, and we went ahead and did so. Total walk-on, Dinoland was empty. It was pleasant enough.

Next was Dinosaur--excuse me, DINOSAUR!. We LOVE this ride and have waited forever for it in the past. Again we experiences the thrill of running through an empty queue that once stole hours of our lives.

I noticed all of the broken effects discussed on these forums (except the Carnys were all fully functional) and duly tsked to myself, but loved the ride anyway. Even though I know those dinosaurs are really rubbery half-AAs they're still kinda terrifying. Great fun.

I considered getting right back in line but let it go for the time being, we had to make the most of the morning hours. We drifted through the... you know... old plants trail, and through a still-empty Dinoland on the way to Asia. I found this quite lulzy

FP time was not up and Flights of Wonder was not yet showing so it was time for ***Kali River Rapids. Not sure what these are but they are interesting...

The Kali queue was amazingly detailed! And also empty. Took a bunch of fly-by pics

I very much appreciated the theming of this ride, being used to local amusement park water rides which are surrounded by lovely details like exposed metal support structures, dirt lots, and chain link. We got pleasantly sprinkled the first trip. The family riding with us said they were on their 3rd trip without getting off, so we gave that a try, with CM approval. And were promptly soaked for the entire day.

10:04 AM We took some very unflattering pics to document the occasion and headed to ***Flights of Wonder. I was dubious about the show, but put it on our touring plan having heard rave reviews from family members and forum strangers alike. It was awesome! I generally have a polite tolerance for cheesy family shows (how could one survive in WDW otherwise), but Guano Joe is legitimately entertaining.

Four stars from both of us!

Intent upon touring AK in a "stop and smell the roses" manner, we took our time heading back to Everest. I showed my mother This Thing

which I didn't line up quite right, and we got the Photopass with Tinker Bell in my hand, which turned out sweet.

11:08 AM We spent about 5 seconds in the wonderfully detailed ***Expedition: Everest queue and I realized that our FPs were actually for 9:40-10:40. I handed them off with great shame to the CMs who didn't seem to care. Holy wow, this is a fantasticly amazing roller coaster. We had regrettably skipped it on our previous trip because it looked too scary, and after looking up the stats I thought that was stupid, but no. It may be smallish but it IS scary! And also incredibly smooth! And what an excellent view of the World! Having never seen the Yeti in any mode I was appropriately startled in the moment, but mildly bitter and disappointed at his status later. I would still ride it again and again, but Mom was too scared, so we moved on.

 

[Frightful]

11:45 AM Time for post-breakfast/pre-lunch in Asia. I got a twisty donut and iced tea from the tea stand and my mom got chicken fried rice from mini-Yak and Yeti. Both good but we were too hungry for pics. We looked around the shops around this area and noticed this lovely fountain

which one man found perfect for washing a diaper-changing pad in. No joke, my face was literally like this and I'm sure he noticed.

Horrors aside, we headed to the Maharaja Jungle Trek. I like the bats, their faces look like my dog.

We made sure to take time to appreciate the stellar theming

there were also some animals here and there, just waiting to be the subject of terribly-exposed photos

but only one peacefully sleeping tiger to be found. I did enjoy viewing their expansive habitat

and we really loved the birdhouses

Then was the time for another Fastpass errand, as I was determined to not wait in an hour-long line for the Safaris. Picked those up and I wanted to go on the Pangani Forest Exploration trail, but Mom elected to stay behind in the shade.

A lot of animals were hanging back around here too. The hippos were up by the glass when I walked up, but by the time I made it through the throng of people only fish were visible. They were nice. There was one meerkat (precious kittyface)

and absolutely no gorillas to be seen

which was fine with me because I feel really rude and pretentious watching gorillas, more so after reading Congo.

 

[Frightful]

12:51 PM We had pre-determined that regardless of our current location in the park, lunch would be a Restaurantosaurus, because they have sweet potato fries and a veggie entree that isn't pizza or a burger. OMG is Animal Kingdom huge. It was a trek back to Dinoland. The place was quite busy and we were rather annoyed by the time we found a spot. But the food was satisfactory.

Angus bacon cheeseburger, may have been ordered without bacon

and vegetable subosaurus with sweet potato fries!

1:28 PM After a break it was about time for ***Finding Nemo: The Musical. This common Florida bird tried to pass itself off as something rare and unique

The musical was pleasant and we both enjoyed it, the performers are obviously talented and such. That attended to, we were to head back to Africa, but I gave into an impulse and made a quick Fastpass run back to Dinosaur. That was an immense physical effort, but the reward was this

Ah, the sign of good planning.

The Safaris FP line took about 20 minutes, but that's still shorter than we've ever waited before. Our guide was enthusiastic and careful to look for animals to point out. We saw some cute lil things

and some nice other animals like this giraffe who was about to relieve herself at this moment, d'oh

...honestly, I don't remember why I uploaded this pic

I was slightly disappointed not to hear about Big Red. The storyline has lost a bit of its pathos, perhaps, although it was always rather silly. I have to say I find AK's insistent message of conservation hilarious, given the tons and tons of resources WDW uses up for the sheer purpose of entertainment (and I'm sooo glad they do), but it's a nice thought nonetheless.

 

[ArtieJim]

Not sure what these are but they are interesting...

I think these are for monkeys to climb around on. Was down at the National Zoo in DC last summer with my girlfriend and saw some orangutans having a field day on them. When we went to AK in October we didn't see any monkeys, chimps or orangutans on them, but we just figured that's what they were for since they looked the same. More detail in AK obviously, just two big steel posts that could've been mistaken for electrical pylons (and were until we saw the orangutans climbing on them) down in DC.

 

[Frightful]

I think these are for monkeys to climb around on. Was down at the National Zoo in DC last summer with my girlfriend and saw some orangutans having a field day on them. When we went to AK in October we didn't see any monkeys, chimps or orangutans on them, but we just figured that's what they were for since they looked the same. More detail in AK obviously, just two big steel posts that could've been mistaken for electrical pylons (and were until we saw the orangutans climbing on them) down in DC.

Interesting, there are monkeys in that area (or some sort of primates that are not called monkeys). I'd love to see the National Zoo someday.




3:40 PM Time to go back to Dinoland AGAIN once more trekking all the way across the park. But hooray for DINOSAUR!.

Even I haven't seen that movie. Not that it has anything to do with the ride.

The ride photo was just as embarrassing as our first one and of course my mother bought it, amid much complaining. It was now time for a leisurely, detail-focused exit. We went through some shops in Dinoland and on Discovery Island, and Mom purchased a WDW 40th shade hat that was only a little on the dorky side, and proved quite useful that week. We also stopped to look at the Tree of life for the first and last time

Having seen, appreciated, and felt no need to return to It's Tough To Be a Bug in the past, that was as close as we got to it that trip. We took our time through the Oasis

and stopped to sign up for a vacation planning survey (YES, I planned this trip!), taking 400 years to type my email address correctly into the tablet thing. Next time I'm getting one with 4 characters or less.

At the exit we got the obligatory entrance sign pic and I pointed out this remnant of the AK that was not to be (and the IoA that WAS to be):

4:30 PM To the bus stop and Animal Kingdom Lodge. A nice short trip, and what a *gorgeous* resort, now high on our list of future places to stay. Checked in at Boma for our 5:00 ADR at 4:55 and were seated within a couple minutes. We had a friendly server who gave my mother a fresh carnation that ended up lasting until our departure day (boo, hiss), and explained the soup situation along with the free-form buffet structure, which is apparently quite difficult for most people to adapt to. I guess you get so used to standing in line at Disney...

I was very worried about this ADR. I really really wanted to try the restaurant, but Mom doesn't do spicy or very "different" food. However, she very much approved of the place, even if her plate was rather Americanized

I also very much enjoyed the meal. I would hesitate to pay the price again, since I eat very little and make poor value of buffets (though I love them), but I'm glad we tried it. I forgot to get a pic of the OMG Amazing carrot-ginger soup, but here are my beautifully-colored plates

Boma is where we first discovered the mysterious and magical Disney Strawberry. I mean, holy GMOs, they are huge, and incredibly delicious, vibrant and of the perfect level of sweetness. I cannot sing their praises enough.

Also, the Zebra Domes--I feared the hype, but they're NOT overrated. They are perfect, and eating one is like a private moment in paradise.

I wish I could have eaten more but our day was intense I was falling asleep at the table. So we went to take some pics and pack it in.

There was some debate about how to get to POR. My original plan was to bus it back to AK but my mom pointed out that it was closing time there and would be busier. She's a budding park commando, I'm so proud! I then elected for the Epcot bus because I had been whining about missing it (and I used to think it was boring!) and wanted to see SSE from the gate , but the DHS bus came first. Incidentally, at AKL's bus stop, we read the signs on every single post stating that balloons are not allowed at that resort due to the animals, and then watched a young girl come off a bus with a Mickey balloon. Nice one, parents.

The POR bus took few minutes to get to DHS but by 6:20 we were home.

 

[Patrick_Ears]

Love the TR!!!!

 

[Kajunpainter500]

Loving the TR,getting me ready for 2012 trip

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

We ate at CP on May 3rd. Looks like you arrived the last day we were there (we were at Animal Kingdom) we flew home on Mothers Day.

 

[brad9008]

great trip report

 

[roydavid7771]

Great report so far! So glad to hear about POR, we're actually staying there in October. I requested Oak Manor, so I'm hopeful I made the right choice....

 

[fbp]

Loving your trip report. Keep it up!

 

[LeeSeeBabe]

Great report! Can't wait to read more!

 

[mamamouse]

awesome report so far,I'm excited to see whats next

 

[tink65]

Great TR so far! We're staying at POR in September for the first time and are really looking forward to it! Can't wait to read more!