Trip Report Hot, wet, sunny, and too much time in Chilis; a June 2013 Trip Report

Tiggertoo56 · Jul 21, 2013

Brill Trip report, but you definitely missed out by not staying in the world. We Brits can get some good prices for trips, so it can be done on a budget! Love the pics and can't wait to see more. As others have said you need to get James back so that you can do the things you missed. I've been 5 times now and still missed some, but going back Oct '14 so should have chance to catch up.

Looking forwrd to the rest of the report - but as it's still hot here it may be a while?

pumpkin7 · Jul 21, 2013

Tiggertoo56 said:
Brill Trip report, but you definitely missed out by not staying in the world. We Brits can get some good prices for trips, so it can be done on a budget! Love the pics and can't wait to see more. As others have said you need to get James back so that you can do the things you missed. I've been 5 times now and still missed some, but going back Oct '14 so should have chance to catch up.

Looking forwrd to the rest of the report - but as it's still hot here it may be a while?

It's gone much cooler today but I still haven't got round to it ha!
Yeah we will definitely look into staying on site. I think it's much easier to get off site than it used to be, and to be honest, I Drive has gone down hill a bit in past few years so I don't think I really want to stay on there again.

pumpkin7 · Jul 21, 2013

Day 5: MGM Studios

MGM is probably my second favourite park. MK is my favourite, but I followed Touring Plans for all these days and so far they hadn’t let me down.

We, however, decided to spend a few hours round by the pool first. We’d booked the 10am shuttle to MGM.

Today, the bus company decided to drop us off at the MK. I really do wish they would join all the parks via the monorail. After learning about the monorail and going on the monorail, a bus just seems, un Disney. But still.

Monorail erm... is it green? Mouldy Green passed us overhead.

The amount of people I saw doing this and being told off by the marshals was insane! We ourselves got moaned at at Epcot the one day because we were walking next to rather than on the double crossing.

After a quick bus ride, we were at MGM!

A lovely view of the....hat! And my Dads head.

The park was already pretty crowded so we headed straight over to Midway Mania to get FP. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about!

11am and the return time was 8pm! Oh well.

I love the theming around Pixar Place. Definitely one of my favourites theme wise. I just wish they’d fix Luxo Jr. I never saw him in action but totally want to!

Even at 11am the queue was 120 minutes. Insane.
Once we’d got the FP, Ma and Pa went off on their own, and me and James went to walk down the streets of America.

I think they need something more in this area. It was pretty much deserted the both times we went over to it. Even the stalls are closed. There’s just nothing to do down there.

pumpkin7 · Jul 21, 2013

After we went over to Muppet Vision 3D! I love this attraction. I feel it’s one of the best 3D movies in Orlando.

Here’s James with his themed T Shirt for the day.

Now, I ended up looking like a complete and utter twerp going into this ride. I’ve read and seen pictures of the key under the mat. It even says on the sign ‘Key under the mat’. I looked under the mat.... no key! I just looked like I’d gone completely crazy. Where is the key?!?!
So after quickly running away from the mat and all the people around me thinking I’d gone bonkers, we entered the pre show. I enjoyed looking around for goodies in this area. Since our last trip we had watched up to Season 3 of the Muppet Show so I spotted a lot of the things from the show that I’d never seen before.

Pigs In Space!

A nice lady offered to take our 3D glasses picture. Though I look a bit drunk I assure you I’m not.

The show looked really good. Everything was working perfectly. I even noticed Chef behind us, which most people don’t I think, but he was there and working!

Then the temperature suddenly dropped...

Haha.

We walked passed Pizza Planet. I think it would be so cool if they made this look like the actual Pizza Planet in the movie, complete with arcade games etc. I never went inside this one but I can’t imagine it looks like the movie.

Next we wanted to ride the new Star Tours!
I’m glad they put the speeder back.

This had a low wait time too, 20 minutes. I don’t think it went about 30 during our trip, but even then, I don’t think we were even waiting 20 and 30 minutes. They seemed to severely over estimate the wait times on all rides while we were there. Very strange.

pumpkin7 · Jul 21, 2013

While we were waiting, they were doing Jedi Training so we got a really good shot of a Storm Trooper

The queue looked awesome. Nice and fresh.

Pilot!

On our first ride through we got to go to the Wookie homeworld. I thought the ride was greatly improved. Fresh, clean, and James ended up being the Rebel Spy too which was pretty neat. This is definitely a refurb done well, very well.
We had a wonder round the shop too. James wanted to create his own Droid but I thought it was a bit of a waste of money, but I did spot Mickey Skywalker again. However we didn’t buy anything... just yet....

We were walking toward the Tower of Terror but noticed that Indiana Jones had pretty much just started. We managed to get a seat pretty close to the front and they were just doing the warm up show when we sat down.

I remembered to pull the rope!

We had a bit of a wonder while heading toward ToT.

Poor Roger needs his window fixing.

Tower of TErrrRRrRRrrrRRRrrRRRRrRrRoRrRrrrr!
It had a listed wait time of 15 minutes. Great!

pumpkin7 · Jul 21, 2013

I love the theming of this building! It’s so creepy with the music playing in the background as though it has just been abandoned.

Had a fab ride through on this. I just wish it lasted longer! It’s over too quick! But everything was working from what I could tell. And everyone in the car was having a blast. Though one woman did enquire as to whether all her stuff was going to fly out her bag... hehe.

Next up, RnRC

I was so worried I was going to lose my bag during that ride round. I know it wouldn’t have fallen out but just at some points I thought it was going to fall. It had my big expensive camera in it, that wouldn’t have been good. We were also in the 'love in an elevator' car. Love that song!

It was getting warm so we decided to head into One Man’s Dream, another first for us. I wanted to go in last time but it was closed for refurbishment.

I think it’s such a lovely tribute to Uncle Walt and it’s nice that they still have it in this day and age where they’re taking his name off the start of movies and the like.

I’m not sure how much of this stuff is genuine, I can only imagine most of the stuff is either in Anaheim or the Disney Family Museum, but it was still pretty neat to see Walt’s old school desk, and ‘Grandma’s House’ as I’ve read a lot about it in the few biographies I’ve got.

pumpkin7 · Jul 21, 2013

Avert your eyes! Naked animatronic coming through!

Is this the Lincoln that was used in the Worlds Fair or is it an old Hall of Presidents animatronic?
Hi Figment!

This is the cutest thing I have ever seen! I want one!

Ah, my dream cabinet.

I really enjoyed the movie too. It was nice to hear Walt speak. Although the sound in that theatre needs looking at big time. It was quiet and crackly. An old guy next to me fell asleep pretty much as soon as it started. Ha.
Next on the list was the Backlot Tour. I wasn’t impressed with it last time but I felt we had to do it because it’s a classic. I think the fact that they haven’t updated it since Pearl Harbour came out just indicates the fact that it doesn’t have much time left. And if it has, they need to update it!

Plus I didn’t spot the skeleton of the car out of Who Framed Roger Rabbit that Bob Hoskins drives... I thought it was meant to be in the prop house?
Anyway we had a prime seat at the front of one of the cars.
Now, I don’t know whether there was a technical hitch or the driver just hadn’t pressed play, but the CM on the bus actually had to do some talking. Except, she didn’t have a clue what anything was about. Nada, zilch. We were going through the prop graveyard and she was saying things like ‘and here are some props from some Disney Movies, our most famous being this vehicle on the right.’ And when we’d rounded the corner to come back through the prop graveyard ‘and here we have some more vehicles in our prop graveyard that go with the others we saw just a moment a go’.... yes, where are they from? It’s like she had had zero training at all in the event of the narration breaking down. Thankfully it started working around the time we got to Walt’s plane. Although I would have love to have seen how she handled Catastrophe Canyon.

Next up, James wanted to see Lights, Motors Action! I was sooo hot by this point so I went and got some ice from the Herbie’s vendor. She looked at me as if I’d gone crazy... ice?? Yes, ice!

This was as cool as ever, but even with the introduction of Lightening Mc Queen, it still seemed very dated.
Next, we made our way towards the Great Movie Ride.

One thing I don’t like about this now is that the new ride entrance for all us mere mortals doesn’t take you through the courtyard. I think it’s such a shame that you don’t get to walk through that any more. I know you can go back to it but it’s so empty you feel like a bit of an idiot. On this visit they had changed the normal entrance to FP+. I think they seriously need to rethink this, though I’m not sure how many people would waste a FP on this attraction...? Saying that, it had a 30 minute wait. What?! But they were only running one car out of 2, the back car, the gangsta scene. Sometimes it felt as though they were creating lines on purpose. They could have easily got this queue down to nothing.
I was given another red queue card at this attraction too.

And on that note, I'm going to leave it on a cliffhanger until tomorrow... did we enjoy the Great Movie Ride? You'll find out tomorrow because my battery is about to die! Tar tar!!

pumpkin7 · Jul 22, 2013

Mary Poppins horse was there on this visit, but not on the next visit. Does anyone know what happened to it?

We had prime seats, right at the front, right next to the driver. She was a pretty good CM.

Gah! They need to sort this! Turn the water back on, the scrim looks terrible!

Borrow some of Gene Kelly’s water, he’s got plenty of it while he’s singing in the rain.

Wicked Witch was as awesome as ever. Actually, I don't understand this. We were in the front of these two cars, but still got the gangster scene, yet the next time we went round, the guy infront of us, as we were in the second car, the first cars CM had to do the talking to the Wicked Witch, but we also got the gangsta scene on that one...
Still, the ride looked in great nick. Both the Aliens were working (last visit they weren't) and all the munchkins were too. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

After GMR, it was almost time for our reservation at the Sci Fi Dine In! Though, I’d told my mom earlier in the day that we would meet them by Gertie as the restaurant was next door. No, fail, this is 50’s Prime Time! So James stayed by Gertie and I went over to the Dine In to see if they had realised my mistake. They had.

But we had to go and get James, so I had my photo taken with Uncle Walt.

We then went over to the Dine In. We were handed a flashy thing, and went to sit over on the benches. This old woman was sat in the middle of the only available bench. So I sat one side, and my Mom stood as if to see if this woman would move. She eventually asked if she would mind moving over. The old woman’s response was ‘I’ll move but I don’t think it’s fair as I don’t get to sit by my family’... what?? You’re in the lobby for one, and at Disney for two! Cheer up!
We were seated within about 15 minutes which was good.
Mom and Dad liked this place much better than the San Angel Inn. The theming in here was fantastic. I loved the little car we were put in.

Everything on the menu sounded so scrummy, so I built my own burger. It was super yummy!

For desert we had chocolate cheesecake, which was again, a massive NOM.

The only criticism I would have about this place would be the movie screen repeated after an hour. I think they need to get some more material to pad it out a bit. But other than that, we enjoyed the whole experience. The server was great, the food was great and the atmosphere was awesome. I would totally recommend this restaurant.
By the time we had finished, our FP time for TSMM was approaching so we head back over. I don’t know whether they had had some issues during the day but the FP line was out the door and half way down the street. We had about a 20 minute wait, which was still better than the 120 minute wait listed for stand by.

I was gutted the FP line didn’t go passed Mr Potato Head. I really wanted to see him. The ride itself was great fun. James ended up winning, but it was a blast. Not sure I’d wait 120 minutes for it though.

pumpkin7 · Jul 22, 2013

When we came out, we went over to Star Tours to ride again seen as it was only a 20 minute wait. This time we got a Pod Race! I love the fact you get different screenings every time you ride.

It was starting to get dark so all the neons were on. I do love this park at night.

Unfortunately we had to get back over to Epcot for 9.30 for our pick up so we had to call it a night.
On the way out I had my photo infront of the Monsters University topiary.

Once we were back we headed to Chilis... and then off to bed.

Next up: Day 6: Magic Kingdom!

KLeigh · Jul 22, 2013

Mary Poppin's carousel horse is on it's way to the D23 Expo to be part of the 50th Anniversary of Mary Poppins Exhibit.

Probably getting some TLC before going on display with Bert's horse!

PS - LOVING this TR!! Can't wait to read more!

pumpkin7 · Jul 23, 2013

Ok, I just got the dreaded email saying that my bandwidth is nearing its limit so if all these pictures go off, I apologise! I will get it sorted at some point.

Ad I'm glad Mary's horse is going somewhere awesome. It was just weird, there one day, gone the next.

pumpkin7 · Jul 23, 2013

Day 6: Magic Kingdom!

Right, now normally I would pick Magic Kingdom to be my first park. Alas, this time I decided to go with Touring Plans and go on what was allegedly a quieter day.
So we were up and on the 8.30 bus over to Epcot. I was kind of glad of this as we got to ride the monorail again!

I'm not sure what monorail we got to ride this time, I think it was red, but it was empty.

After our short monorail ride, we decided to get the Ferryboat across to the MK.

All aboard the General Joe Potter!

After bag check and tickets, we were in! Whey!!

Que a massive brazillian tourgroup entering at the same time. Booooo.

Hurrah1!!!1!!11!!!11 Excited muchhhhh?!

So, we didn't really have much of a plan. I suggested starting in Tomorrowland and working our way round. Not before some snaps around Main Street.

Pluto and Marie were meeting in the hub, but both had massive queues and I wanted to get to Tomorrowland!

I had fun spotting all the windows down MS to do with people who had made the Magic Kingdom possible. I also enjoyed spotting places I'd walked straight passed during our last trip, like the Emporium and the Main Street Bakery (biggest disappointment ever btw!)

Now, this CM, I have never seen a lady move so fast. The carriage was tootling along MS, and there was a woman with a buggy who just completely didn't notice said carriage and didn't move. The buggy was right in the way of the tracks. They shouted at the woman, they screamed at the woman, she still didn't hear, and just as the carriage was about to hit the buggy, this CM jumped infront of the horse, grabbed the buggy, and moved it out the way. Only when the buggy was being pulled from her, did the mother notice. Kudos to the CM!

DApper Dans in the back. Nice to see the carriage back out again as it wasn't during our last trip.

Yay! Castle <3

After staring at the castle for a good 10 minutes, we headed toward Tomorrowland! We wanted to get FP for Space Mountain so we headed over there first.

pumpkin7 · Jul 23, 2013

However, we got side tracked and decided to go on Stitch!

The only reason I like this attraction is because of the giant animatronic Stitch. He is just totally awesome. I don't like how those shoulder restraints come down and feel like they are crushing you! I had to push up on mine because it bloody well hurt! Needless to say they were then too high for me to actually get any of the movement from them but still. My only other complaint was 'Please move all the way to the end of the row. All of the auditorium offers the same view.' LIES. I saw the back of Stitch's head most of the time. Epic fail.

Next we decided to go on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin as the queue was only 20 minutes, which went up to 30 minutes as soon as we joined the queue. But nevermind.

James won, of course, but only because he was controlling the spin!

Next up was the Carousel of Progress. I love this attraction so much. I particularly like the retro poster outside!

Next up was the ride that never stops, except it does several times every time we ride, the Peoplemover!

After the Peoplemover, we got our FPs for Space Moutain and headed over to the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway. I don't know why we enjoy this because it's hot and smelly but it's always a good laugh at how bad the steering is.

DiSnEyF@n · Jul 23, 2013

Loving it!!!

pumpkin7 · Jul 23, 2013

I've said we got the FP before going on the Speedway but we must have got it before that as we then headed back to use our FP.

We were split up which was annoying. And we had a stupid woman infront of us who just didn't get how the safety restraint worked. The CM had to unlock them as the woman had put both legs on one side of the restraint and taken her shoes off. The CM told her to put her shoes back on, which is she did, and put one leg over each side. The woman then instead took her shoes off again and put both her legs on the opposite side.
This carried on for a good minute before she finally understood what the CM was saying. Some people!!

Anyway, James' ride photo was a good un.

We went over and had a play with the giant floating ball.

And headed back toward the hub. I love these brass figures around the hub. I wish they sold them somewhere. I'd buy them all!

We decided to head over to Adventureland to cool off, and so I could try my first ever Dole Whip!

I left James in the queue because it was bloody hot! Ha.

Dole Whip! I just had the vanilla and pineapple one but it was soooo refreshing.

Instant meltage...

James had a Coca Cola float. I tried some and it was very nice but James didn't enjoy the mix of Coke and Ice Cream.

We then headed toward the Jungle Cruise but it had a listed wait time of 70 minutes. I like the Jungle Cruise, but I don't like it enough to wait 70 minutes for it. WHY we didn't get a FP, I don't know! So instead, we decided to go and watch the Tiki Birds since I don't remember ever seeing it pre New Management.

We were, again, let in once the pre show had started. This really riles me up! I want to watch the pre shows...

I really enjoyed the show, although I think the motors need changing in some of the birds. They were really loud and were louder than the music at times. Plus, it scared one of the little children when the Tiki Gods came out. I didn't realise it got so scary. Still, it was nice to see it without Iago as I always thought he ruined it a bit.

Next up, we decided to pay a visit to the Pirates!

I love the new additions to the ride, especially the mermaid projection. It's so creepy and really ads to the ride.

pumpkin7 · Jul 23, 2013

We were getting a tad warm so decided to head over to Splash Mountain!

Unfortunately the time listed was 120 minutes. I didn't want to wait, James did, so we joined the queue.

There was no queue music outside which kind of bummed me out.

We were just about to enter the first queue building when a couple of CMs came over, closed the doors, put a bin infront of them, and announced the ride was experiencing technical difficuties and to come back later. We'd been queuing for 30 minutes at this point so I was pretty miffed, especially as they weren't exiting the rest of the queue. What was the deal with that?

Anyway, pretty miffed, we decided to head over to the Haunted Mansion, battling the crowds watching a parade of kids dance along to 'Dancing in the Street'. Boy, this was annoying. We were walking along with the dancers pretty much, and every few minutes, the song would restart. We heard it about 5 times trying to get over to the Haunted Mansion. This is not so much fun when you're battling crowds of people just standing still.

I snapped some pics along the way. I'm sorry these are rubbish, it's my point and shoot and it's too bright in the sun and too dark when it goes cloudy.

The Haunted Mansion had a queue time of 20 minutes so we joined the queue.

This had to be the slowest moving queue in the history of the world. I don't understand how seen as it's an omnimover! We were in the queue for about 40 minutes.

We had some entertainment though. A woman ahead of us started smoking, so a woman behind us told the CM and he demanded she put it out. She did but not before having another massive drag. There was also another guy who was smoking and he got told off too.

I was glad we got to go through the grave yard but at the same time, there wasn't an option to bypass it.

I don't think this was working properly. There was only a trickle of water coming out from above a few of the keys, eventhough there were loads of holes, or was I missing the point?

This guy was refreshing! Well, after I fought off the young girl who kept blocking the holes. No! I need to cool down! Get away from the holes!!

I didn't get this game at all.

Now, this is what annoyed me the most about this queue. We were ushered inside, they didn't fill the stretching room to capacity, and then decided to let a scooter in once the room had started stretching. It just totally ruined the whole illusion! Why do they keep wrecking the pre shows?! I just can't understand why they didn't fill the room considering the massive queue outside, and then ruined the Disney magic by keeping the doors open. If there was a show before the stretching room then we missed that too.
Then, when we were let out of the stretching room, I was completely gobsmacked to see the loading area was also completely empty! And THEN to rub salt in the wounds, we headed toward load, and the CM actually waited for a queue to develop before they loaded people on the ride. Are they intentionally trying to make the queues long? I just don't get it at all. People were outside sweltering when I'm sure they could have had load full, the stretching room full, and the room before the stretching room full. It's an omnimover! Why is there a queue?!?!

After that farce, we decided to go for a sit down and go and watch the Country Bear Jambouree.

I hadn't seen it since the refurb, and the bears looked great. People were enjoying it too, clapping and stomping their feet. I enjoyed it too but I missed the original. I don't think it's really done anything to plus the show, but still. I noticed Buff, Max and Melvin bopping along to the bears too which I never noticed before.

pumpkin7 · Jul 23, 2013

Next up, we decided to go and check out New Fantasyland.

The Tangled bathrooms looked great, but we never went in them.

So, James went over to get FPs for Peter Pans Flight.. again good ride, not worth an 80 minute wait, and we joined the 30 minute listed time for It's a Small World.

I don't remember the last time I rode this. I don't remember this entrance at all.

We were actually only queuing for 15 minutes which was a bonus. I found they tended to really over estimate wait times or severely under estimate them.

This is James looking thoroughly unimpressed that he has to ride. It was down for refurb during our last trip so he got out of it.

I have to be honest, I was rather underwhelmed. It looked like it needed another refurb, and it didn't look busy enough if that makes sense. They need to fix the drunk hippo, big time! He stood out like a sore thumb.

After, we decided to head into New Fantasyland. I love the new entrance.

The sky was looking evil so we decided to head over to the new Little Mermaid Ride. Wait time was listed as 60 minutes so as we didn't have reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern until 90 minutes later, we decided to join.

The queue is really, really nice.

I liked the little interactive games, although most people didn't seem to get what to do and were just waving at the little crabs.

Skuttle was really cool, but again, his spiel wasn't long enough. We had to listen to it twice.
Now again, this is an omnimover, I know it's aa new attraction and everything, but we queued for this for 90 minutes. The queue was never ending, but after you;d got past the area where the FP joined the main queue, the queue moved really quick! Again, felt like they were intentionally making a massive queue for nothing.

The ride was OK, I just wish I hadn't have waited 90 minutes for it, especially since we then had to rush over to Liberty Tree Tavern for our reservation.

Anyway, we arrived at the Liberty Tree Tavern and met up with my rentals. We were seated pretty quickly. Though I didn't realise it was a set menu. When I booked the reservation I didn't realise this and I'm sure it's not what was online but we stayed anyway, and really enjoyed the meal.

The themeing in here was great, and we really enjoyed the food. We had a salad to start, a roast chicken / pork / beef roast for mains, which was all you could eat too, yum! and apple pie for desert. I would totally recommend this restaurant to anyone.

pumpkin7 · Jul 23, 2013

I forgot to mention, after Splash 'broke down' we got FP to come back later. So, after we ate, that's what we did. Thankfully the storms had stayed away, so we joined the queue.

It was nice to see they'd got rid of the canopies about load.
The ride looked great. Everything looked fresh and fantastic. The only thing I noticed that wasn't working was Brer Rabbit, right before the big drop, his mouth had fallen into his head and didn't move, oh and again, Brer Rabbit, when he's returned home and he's leaning up against his house, he was floating on nothing. I'm sure he's meant to be leaning on a pillow or something? Floating Brer Rabbit..!

We'd arranged to meet up with my rents at the hub. I'd completely forgot about the parade starting and everything being mental around the hub, so we took some pics.

When they arrived (they'd been to see the Bears!), we battled it down to the entrance, and boarded Monorail Red to take us back to Epcot.

To be honest after the day we'd had here with crowds and not really getting on much, we weren't feeling very magical. Thankfully we had another MK day so we were hoping it would be a little more magical.

Next up, Day 7: Rest Day ,for reals this time...!

Tiggerish · Jul 24, 2013

What a frustrating day at Magic Kingdom! :banghead:

Liberty Tree is a set menu at dinner, and a la carte at lunch. Next time, get lunch there, and you can order for dessert the fabulous Ooey-Gooey Toffee Pie, which is only offered at lunch. Strange that they have such different set ups for lunch and dinner, but that's what it is!

Enjoying your report very much!

pumpkin7 · Jul 24, 2013

Tiggerish said:
What a frustrating day at Magic Kingdom!

Liberty Tree is a set menu at dinner, and a la carte at lunch. Next time, get lunch there, and you can order for dessert the fabulous Ooey-Gooey Toffee Pie, which is only offered at lunch. Strange that they have such different set ups for lunch and dinner, but that's what it is!

Enjoying your report very much!

Ah, now that would make more sense. We did look at the menu and I know for a fact that it wasn't a set meal, so I must have been looking at the lunch menu. Dang! Nevermind, it was still scrummy, it just cost a bit more than I had planned for but nevermind!

It was a really bad day.

Trip Report Hot, wet, sunny, and too much time in Chilis; a June 2013 Trip Report

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