Trip Report It can only go up from here

Lyear · Jan 11, 2014

The reason we left Harry Potter's area the same way we came in is because I had seen something in the Lost Continent area that looked interesting. It was called Poseidon's fury. It had a very elaborate display. There was a crumbling temple, and a statue that looked like it had fallen. From the fallen statue, Poseidon's arm was still raised, holding his trident. I wasn't sure what type of ride or show this was, but felt it would be worth looking into. As we approached it, we saw it was some sort of show, and the next one was in 30 minutes. We decided spend the thirty minutes in Seuss land.

As we entered, the Caro-"Seuss"-el was to our left. I asked Sara if she wanted to go on it, and to my amazement she said yes. This is the same woman who has been rebuffing my attempts to ride the carousel at Hersheypark for the past 10 years. Felt it was just for kids. I don't know why the willingness to ride here, but I'm not complaining. We learned that each of the unique animals you ride all have some minor control you can do, such as sticking out their tongue, turning their head, etc. After the carousel, we went on the cat in the hat ride. I could tell my stomach was bothering me, because the spinning section of this ride (like 5 times around) got to me.

After this we went back to Poseidon's Fury. We had just missed the show, or so we were told, but they employee told us we could try to catch up if we wanted. We entered the temple, and quickly caught up with the line. And waited. And then waited some more. Then once we were done with that waiting, we waited a little longer. And then...ok, ok, I'll stop now. We were seriously standing in a dark room with a queue line for like 30 minutes. Not moving, not sure when the show was going to start, no form of entertainment to speak of, just standing. Finally we get let into a room, and we find out the premise of the ride is that an archaeological team found something in one of their excavations. But we quickly learn an evil demigod has been unleashed through their finding, and plans to take over the world. We are ushered through room after room, against our "tour guide's" better judgment, and eventually Poseidon arrives and defeats the demigod. In all, this thing probably took about an hour (including the wait at the beginning), and I'd have to say it was an utter disappointment. It was so long of a wait, and it was billed as a ride that showcased awesome effects, but they really weren't all that awesome. Definitely the most disappointed I was in a ride during the whole week.

We exit and make our way into Harry's area again. This time, we're in search of butterbeer. They're not hard to find. There are giant carts all through Hogsmeade. Pretty long lines at all of them too. We wait, and eventually get our frozen butterbeer. Sara was told from her friend to get frozen, instead of regular, butterbeer. Once we got ours, the Wizarding World was crowded, so we made our way across the bridge and into the Jurassic Park area before we found a seat to drink it.

It was really good. Sara gave it a very high mark. Imagine a butterscotch slushie, and you won't be too far off. And yes, I wore my magic band to Universal. I had gotten so used to wearing the thing that I wasn't even thinking about it at the time. I wasn't the only one either. Plenty of magic bands to be seen at universal.

Our next stop was the Jurassic Park visitor's center. A pretty good impression of the visitor's area of John Hammond's dreams, but not too much to do inside. They did have some impressive dinosaur skeletons on display though.

The front of the building was also a good spot to get some photos across the lake.

The Hulk coaster

A look into Toon Lagoon.

And Dr. Seuss's area again.

At this point we did a lot of watching. In the rest of Jurassic Park, and the next section, Toon Lagoon, the only rides were water rides. And not Splash Mountain type, you may get a little wet rides. I'm talking full on "soak you to the core" rides. The Jurassic Park boat ride was one I was very interested in, but one look at the people exiting made me know I wasn't going on. As we made our way to Toon Lagoon, they have two water rides, and same story on each. We just weren't interested in getting wet.

This is one area where Sara and I make a good husband and wife combo. Neither of us like getting soaked, at least when we're not wearing bathing suits. When it comes to these types of water rides, you'll never find one of us trying to convince the other to go on it. We both instantly decline. We've both had experiences of getting soaked in the past, and then for the rest of the day you regret it. Today, it wasn't that hot out, we didn't have ponchos, and weren't interested in buying any. It was a shame that we couldn't experience this area, but we figured if we got soaked, the day would go downhill fast.

While we were in the toon lagoon area, Sara found a comic strip she wanted to get a picture in.

Neat set up they had on this. I wonder how many people got the idea, and how many just walked by unaware. Here's the original photo. I can see a lot of people looking at this and thinking, "why is that dog running straight up?"

Toon Lagoon was a neat place, and probably one we could have spent more time in. They had different cartoon characters plastered everywhere, and little thought bubbles were around as we walked down the street, making for good photo ops. We declined on most of these however. I was seriously still feeling it from the Forbidden Journey almost 3 hours earlier, and at this point had a growing headache. I just wasn't in the picture mood. Other than the already mentioned water rides, there wasn't much to do here, so we moved on.

We made our way into Super Here Island. Another very well themed area. If only there were a real city full of superheros somewhere...

We made our way to the Spiderman Ride. This one was really fun. Looking back, I'm sketchy on the details, but I believe you had gotten a job at the Daily Bugle, and your goal was to get photos of spiderman. You got into your car, and quickly went from scene to scene, seeing Spiderman fight a host of villians along the way. Your car was going every direction, and it ends with a "fall" from a building, only to get caught in a net Spiderman made. They did a great job on this ride. You really felt like you were there. It was similar to the Forbidden Journey in the fact that you were quickly moving from one scene to another, but it wasn't quite the stomach rattling experience that one was.

We decided to skip Dr. Doom's Fear fall and Storm's spinner ride, and made our way to the Incredible Hulk. Other people have said they really enjoyed this coaster, but I think going on this one after our previous ride experiences that day was too much. Sara had a rough time on this one because she didn't realize it was a launch coaster. It's deceiving because it takes you up an incline, but half-way up you launch. We're going slowly up the incline, and I see her looking around. I'm telling her, "Put your head back, put your head back," but she is oblivious. Just like she always is...

. She said afterwards she heard me, but she didn't know why I was saying that. We launch, and her head is thrown back into the seatback. Obviously, that didn't feel the greatest.

My experience? I had gone into this ride with a slight headache, but the Hulk made it a full headache. It probably wouldn't be noticeable to most riders, but there was a very slight vibration in the ride. This unfortunately made it feel like there was a tiny mallet hitting the back of my head throughout the whole ride. I was sooo glad when this one was over. Maybe I'm just getting old, or maybe I shouldn't have rode with a headache, but this coaster was not enjoyable in the least. Overall it's a well designed coaster, and others have told me they enjoyed it, but it just wasn't the one for me that day.

We exited and found a bench to sit down on. We had made a full lap through the park. We discussed our options. The only place we would really have wanted to go yet was back to Harry Potter, but that was on the opposite side of the park. Since we both had a headache, we decided against walking over there. With nothing else to do, we called Mears, and were able to get on a bus leaving in an hour and 15 minutes.

To kill the time, we walked through some gift shops, and then around city walk. Sara purchased a Hard Rock pin. She collects them at every Hard Rock she has been to. I got another shot of the universal globe.

Before long, it was time to catch the bus. We had been at Universal just over 7 hours. It started raining just as we were boarding the bus, and would continue throughout the night. Sara and I both fell asleep on the way back to Coronado.

In my next post, I will process our day at Universal's Islands of Adventure, specifically how I felt it compared to Disney. And then, our rainy, and most boring, evening at Disney.

fractal · Jan 12, 2014

Good stuff! Loved your thoughts on the Opening Ceremony at MK and very glad you included your trip to IOA!

Lyear · Jan 12, 2014

fractal said:
Good stuff! Loved your thoughts on the Opening Ceremony at MK and very glad you included your trip to IOA!

Thanks Fractal. I'm glad you're enjoying it. Thanks for following along.

Lyear · Jan 12, 2014

I figure this is as good a spot as any to slow down for a minute and review our time at Islands of Adventure. While I don't specifically want to compare it to WDW, a lot of this post will do just that, given that it's just too hard not to.

Starting off with the tickets. We purchased them from AAA, and paid $85.00 each for a one day pass to Islands of Adventure. This, together with the Mears transport ($18.00 per person for a round-trip) meant we spent $103.00 each for our day at this park. Going in, I thought that was very expensive, but coming out, I'm sure of it.

I know it's in Orlando, the tourist capital of the world. And it's not like the demand isn't there. The place was pretty full for November. But given the relatively small number of rides (about 2 per land, not counting those specifically for children), the park seems too small for such a large pricetag. I said above that we spent about 7 hours in the park. Now, I readily admit that we left on our own will, and could have spent some extra time there had we chose to. But to have done everything we wanted to do in that amount of time, I have to say the park is towards the smaller side. Had you told me that our ticket, or even one up to $100.00, was for admission to both parks, I would say that was more in the neighborhood of where I see the value.

As I mentioned before, the theming at IOA was great. Much better than I expected, and I would say near or equal to that of Disney's. With the exception of Poseidon's Fury, I thought the queues were well thought out, with plenty of entertainment while waiting. This was especially true in the Harry Potter section. Universal scores high marks here.

Probably the biggest difference I noticed between Universal and Disney was in the staff. Universal's employees fell far short of Disney's cast members, in my opinion. One of the things I love about Disney is how friendly the staff is. By friendly I don't mean polite. Both parks had very polite staff. I mean it seems any cast member at Disney is willing to talk to you, ask you where you're from, or how your vacation's going. It seems one of the cast members' core beliefs is doing anything they can to make your day magical. My experience with the cast member at One Man's Dream is a good example of this, but I've seen cast members play games with children before a parade, walk you to where you need to go instead of simply giving you directions, and do a little dance for you if you're pointing a camera in their direction. The service they provide, again in my opinion, is like nothing else you see in this world. I know others have posted issues they've had with cast members in the past, but I have experienced nothing like this in any of my trips to WDW.

In contrast, I felt the employees of Universal were simply employees. Their costumes were done with the same level of detail as a Disney cast member, but it seemed the similarities ended there. I will say I didn't have one bad experience with a Universal cast member while I was there. No bad service. But no extra mile service either. When we attempted to get on the dueling dragon coaster with our backpacks, we were not greeted at the entrance with a hello, but rather a, "you need to put your bags in a locker," and pointing us in the right direction. When we ordered a soft pretzel from a cart, the employee was friendly, but it was very matter of fact, "what do you want?" conversation.

I don't think it can be underestimated the effect Disney's thoughtful cast members have on the enjoyment of an overall Disney vacation. This was never clearer to me than on my first visit to a non-Disney park in Orlando. Again, we did not receive anywhere near bad service in Universal, but it didn't come close to the out of this world service we have experienced in Disney.

Another observation I had was the large amount of water rides at IOA. One of the reasons we got through the park so quickly is because we chose to skip these attractions. Now yes, I understand this was our choice. We may have gone on the water rides and really enjoyed ourselves. For the reasons I stated above, we chose not to. But since this was our first visit, we were unaware of the high percentage of water rides in this park. If I had it to do over again, I probably would have worn swim trunks this day and made use of a paid locker to store valuables during our time on the water rides. Given that the park costs what it does, and the amount of water rides in the park, I feel like you are throwing money away if you don't ride the water rides.

One area I was impressed with was City Walk. This was a large collections of shops and stores, certainly on par with Downtown Disney, and maybe a touch above. Our original plan was to grab dinner at one of City Walk's restaurants before we left, but since we were leaving so early and not feeling well, we decided to skip this.

Is there anything Universal does better than Disney? I would say the quality of thrill rides would be it. Universal has several world class coasters and other thrill rides. The Dueling Dragon coaster is top notch, one of the best I've been on. The Incredible Hulk is a good ride, though as I explained I didn't personally enjoy it. The Spiderman ride was one of the most fun rides I experienced during our whole vacation. While we didn't go into the original Universal Park, the descriptions of rides there makes it seem like there are plenty of thrills over there. While Disney does have some good thrillers like TOT and RnRC, for pure quantity it cannot match Universal. I can see a time in my life (teen years to early twenties) where Universal would have won my admission hands down based on the number of thrill rides. However, while the thrill rides are very good, they are not nearly as memorable as some of the Disney attractions I love.

So overall, what did I think about Universal? It was good. Certainly a well run theme park, with plenty of attractions worth bragging about. Universal definitely is not getting rich by riding Disney's coat tails. It can stand on it's own. I do think for what it was it was a tad overpriced, and ultimately was just not as memorable as the Disney Parks. Of the 5 theme parks we visited this trip (Disney's 4 plus IOA), IOA would come in 5th in my rating of my favorites. I definitely see us coming back to Universal one day, but it won't be with the same anticipation that we have for Disney.

Lyear · Jan 12, 2014

We both fully woke up from our bus nap as we were entering WDW. The bus's first stop was Caribbean Beach resort, another one we hadn't seen before. However, due to the hard rain we really didn't see too much of it. We then made our way to Coronado.

Sara and I were starting to feel hungry. We hadn't planned on using a meal credit tonight, but since we were in the main lobby we decided to do Pepper Market again. Twice in one day. It was slightly busier than it had been in the morning, but no where near packed. Sara ordered a veggie burger with fries. I was excited to learn I could order a vegetarian burrito. My favorite place to eat in Pennsylvania is Chipotle, where I order a vegetarian burrito. So I couldn't wait for Disney's take on it. It was good. Not quite Chipotle good, but good. I had to wrap it myself. Let's just say Chipotle won't be offering me a job anytime soon.

I was very exited to learn they had flan for dessert. I grabbed one of these, but was disappointed to find coconut in the crust. I don't remember that in any of the previous flans I had tried. We were both happy with our meals, with me just being a little disappointed with the dessert.

After this, we took a bus around to bus stop 3 and made our way to the room. It was only about 6:45. This would have been a good night to hit the quiet pool, or view the movie they were showing at the main pool. Unfortunately the heavy rain put a damper on those ideas. We called and checked in on Luke, and Sara had an extended conversation with her mom out on the balcony. I passed the time by watching the top Disney attractions show that runs on repeat on the one Disney hotel channel. It had been six years since I had been here, but most of the scenes were the exact same.

We ended up going to bed very early. At least we would be well rested for our last full day in WDW.

jlsHouston · Jan 13, 2014

Wow, I am loving your TR and the pics. I have made it to page 3. I love your pin too, how cool was that, You were at the world same time as us...We did the art of animation for the first time this trip to at HS..well kids totally loved the queue, and the drawing part too. They were a bit disappointed in their final result of Pluto...I told them well practice makes perfect...

jlsHouston · Jan 13, 2014

Lyear said:
Thinking back on our prior trips, I'm really not sure why we hadn't been to the animation pavilion before. Our days at (then) MGM studios would always be full, and I was under the impression that this whole area was devoted to Disney junior shows, like the playhouse Disney live on stage. I had always seen a swarm of strollers parked here, and figured there was nothing for adults. Through reading the various trip reports on this site, I found out that there is quite a lot to explore.

We walked into the courtyard, and made a right. I was most interested in the drawing class, but the doors to this had just closed as we got there. We were told it would be about 20 minutes, so we explored. This was a very popular character spot. There was Sorcerer Mickey, Mr. Incredible and Frozone, and Wreck it Ralph and Vanillope. Each had a long line, longer than we wished to stand in. We wandered for a bit, and after about 15 minutes came back to the drawing area, which was packed. Apparently this is a very popular attraction. Had we known this, we would have just waited at the entrance. As it was, we were outside the main loading area, in a long line. They opened the doors and announced they were loading those inside the loading area, then would get as many of us line-standers in as they could. I could tell it was going to be close. The cast member kept asking how many, going into the room, and then coming back and saying "go ahead in." He did this about 4 times, then we were next in line. He checked quickly, then let us in, and also the couple behind us. We were right up front, holding our boards on our laps as we drew. It was ok, just happy to be here.

As we were taking our seat, we learned that we were going to be drawing Dopey. I thought the animator did a really good job with going slow enough that people could follow, but also fast enough that they kept it flowing and got you done in a decent time. I was shocked at how easy this actually was. If you had placed a picture of Dopey in front of me and said draw it, I would say no way. But our instructor broke it down into really basic steps. Looking around, it seemed almost everyone was coming to a reasonable impression of Dopey.

My final product

And Sara striking a pose...

This ended up being very enjoyable and very memorable. It was neat to be included in an activity and to actually get to create. I don't think Disney will be hiring me as an animator anytime soon, but I enjoyed getting a sneak peak into how it used to be done before the world of computers. I managed to snap a picture of the room on the way out.

After this, we went into another presentation involving Mushu, from Mulan. It was about the journey a character will go through as their features are finalized for a movie. This one wasn't quite as entertaining as the drawing area, but you learned a little more. The whole thing seemed like something that would be found in the extras of a DVD.

After this, we exited the animation area, and went back to rock and roller coaster. Sure enough, our magic bands got us right in, no problems. We made out way through the pre-show area, and into the queue. RNR is the most thrilling ride in Disney World (my opinion), and I was a bit worried going in. Due to my lack of sleep the night before, I had been feeling a bit iffy all day. Star Tours had gotten to me a bit. So did TOT. So I was worried that this ride might finish me. It did nothing of the kind. It's a very smooth ride, and about halfway through I got myself to stop worrying and just enjoy the ride. It really is a lot of fun.

Sara was wearing a clip in the back of her hair that day, and forgot to take it out. Ouch! That merge is painful when you have something pointy in the back of your head.

Following RNR, it was about 6:00. We had a busy night planned. We had wanted to see Fantasmic, then check out Osborne, and finish with dinner at Mama Melrose at 7:30. They had opened up the seating area for Fantasmic, and we thought it would make sense to go ahead and grab a seat. The seating bowl was over half full when we arrived. Our goal going in was to get a spot near the back so we could make a quick exit, and we were able to accomplish this.

They were going through a pre-show that involved different guests finishing the lines to various songs, with help from the audience. I wasn't paying too much attention as I was updating my trip notes on my phone. It seemed like only a matter of minutes before the show was starting. Once again, no pictures of the show itself.

Oh Fantasmic, how shall I describe you? I'll start by saying that the show does a really good job of sticking to the theme of the park. Sorcerer Mickey plays a big role in Hollywood Studios (as seen in the giant hat icon), so it's only fitting that he stars in the finale. And the special effects of the show (the screens made of water, the fire/explosions, etc) just seem perfect for this park, and are very well done.

Having said that, Fantasmic would be my least favorite of the closing shows at Disney. The reason is that it's really hard to follow the story line. I get the idea that it's in Mickey's dream, but the shift to the villians taking control seems really sudden, and Mickey's final victory sort of leaves me going, "huh? How did that happen again?" I'm sure I'm reading too much into what is supposed to simply be an enjoyable experience, but that's what I found myself thinking as the show ended. I don't dislike Fantasmic, but I don't think it measures up to the phenomenal ending shows at Epcot and Magic Kingdom.

As the show ends, Sara and I jump out of our seats, and head to the exit. A lot of people had the same idea. I guess that's what you're thinking if you sit on the edge of a row, near the exit. We found ourselves in a mob of people, but at least the mob was moving quickly. Everyone seemed to have the same idea, "Get to Osborne." We seemed to be keeping with the crowd through every turn as we made out way to the other side of the park.

Once we arrived, we realized they had made major changes to the crowd flow at Osborne. You can now only enter from what I would call the rear (near Lights, Motors, Action). They have blockades up at the other "entrances." It leads to a good bit of confusion among people who aren't sure where to go, and causes cast members to repeat over and over again where they need to go to get in. Our prior experience, there were no barricades, and you could enter or leave from wherever your heart desired. But it also wasn't nearly as crowded, and my guess is that rising crowd levels here forced Disney's hand on this one.

We unfortunately didn't have a lot of time to explore this area, with our dining reservations fast approaching. We walked down the street, taking it in. At one point, a line dance broke out to "Feliz Navidad." We deftly swerved right to stay out of the way. We're really not line dancing folk, after all.

We snapped a few pictures, and we were on our way to dinner.

From the outside, barricade was set up to the left

Another shot over the barricade

We did a photo swap with another group, and their picture of us came complete with photobomber

This one is blurry, but I love the face

OMG you were totally photo bombed!!

Lyear · Jan 13, 2014

jlsHouston said:
Wow, I am loving your TR and the pics. I have made it to page 3. I love your pin too, how cool was that, You were at the world same time as us...We did the art of animation for the first time this trip to at HS..well kids totally loved the queue, and the drawing part too. They were a bit disappointed in their final result of Pluto...I told them well practice makes perfect...

Thank you jlsHouston. It's always neat finding out people were in the World at the same time as us. I wonder if you're in any of our photos. The kids that were in our class seemed to have a little trouble as well, but I didn't look that closely. You could tell the cm was under serious time constraints as she kept us moving at a good pace. And yes, we were photobombed real good.

Lyear · Jan 13, 2014

Day 7. Our last full day in the World. A bit of sadness begins to take over as you realize the end is near. I'm not sure offhand what the 5 stages of grief are, but I found myself in the bargaining phase this morning. Could Disney offer housing on a permanent, FREE basis? I think I would be a good cast member. Surely Disney would want to hire me. We could sell most of our things, and use that money to pay the cost of moving the rest of our things down to Florida. Luke would love Florida winters. Air conditioning isn't that expensive in the summer...

I quickly tried to squash those feelings, and reminded myself we still had a day and a half left. For going to bed as early as we did the night before, we still slept in pretty late. We probably started moving around 7:30 or 8. I had my left-over Mama Melrose pizza (cold) for breakfast. Still tasted pretty good.

I was ready before Sara, so I decided to walk around the Ranchos section and take some photos. I knew what was waiting for me on the other side of the door. My mind went through the various scenarios of "maybe it won't be there because..." But sure enough, hanging from the doorknob was our magical express envelope. Our pick up time the next day was at 3:30pm.

I briefly notified Sara of this, and then went about the original plan of getting photos. I was using our Nikon camera.

The other side of our building.

The quiet pool that I never found the time to swim in.

At this point, the batteries in our camera finally died. We had been getting warnings the last 2 days, and it had started shutting off and turning back on. Now it wouldn't turn back on.

I walked back to the room and Sara was just about ready to go. We decided that instead of doing the walk across the bridge like normal, we were going to walk through the Casitas section. I was armed with my iphone camera, and the drop in quality is pretty apparent. The Casitas section is nice, and apparently full of "premium" rooms. It was nice to take our time here, as you never knew when a fountain or topiary was around the next corner.

There were a large number of fountains, and they gave the Casitas a nice, tranquil feel.

As we approached El Centro, we saw these guys.

It looked like they needed a 4th, so I offered. They invited me right in.

We made such beautiful music together. They begged me to join their band, but I had to decline. Donald has always struck me as the jealous type, and I felt four might be one too many for his liking.

Once inside the lobby, we bought batteries at the gift shop. Our camera was once gain functional. We refilled our mugs (Sara got southern sweet tea, no surprise there), and were ready to go. Hollywood Studios was the destination. We were walking up to the bus stop just as the bus arrived. What luck! It appeared everyone else wasn't so fortunate, as a large number of people stood up and began to load. Some said they had been waiting for about 20 minutes. Sara found a seat on the bus, but I ended up standing. Thankfully it's a quick trip. Our last full day in the parks was about to begin.

jlsHouston · Jan 14, 2014

Ahh..I know I already complimented you on your pics but today I am really loving the pics you took of the resort. CSR was the moderate that lead us to trying the deluxes. We stayed in the Cabana section for Easter in 2012. It was one of most serene and peaceful visits to WDW. I loved the location, we had warm days and cool nights, they did a really neat easter egg hunt on the Casita side Sunday morning, and honestly I don't know if any of the resorts I have stayed in so far except maybe WL impresses me with the terrain as much as CSR...guess I am a southwest kind of person!
I also really enjoyed reading about your day at UNI. We haven't done any time there yet, mainly because I am so enamored of WDW why would I want to dilute my vacation dollars and at this point my grandkids are 9 & 7 and while they are thrill riders still, neither has read a HP book and I kind of feel like it is tantamount at least book 1 gets read before we visit..and no the movies do not qualify. I suspect since when I finally do make it to UNI it will probably be a crowded hot summer visit and I may really not appreciate it too much...but I know I will like the resort stay...what's not to like about a Loews hotel..
Anyways today I am feeling your sadness and restrained panic over the end of the visit is near.

Lyear · Jan 14, 2014

jlsHouston said:
Ahh..I know I already complimented you on your pics but today I am really loving the pics you took of the resort. CSR was the moderate that lead us to trying the deluxes. We stayed in the Cabana section for Easter in 2012. It was one of most serene and peaceful visits to WDW. I loved the location, we had warm days and cool nights, they did a really neat easter egg hunt on the Casita side Sunday morning, and honestly I don't know if any of the resorts I have stayed in so far except maybe WL impresses me with the terrain as much as CSR...guess I am a southwest kind of person!
I also really enjoyed reading about your day at UNI. We haven't done any time there yet, mainly because I am so enamored of WDW why would I want to dilute my vacation dollars and at this point my grandkids are 9 & 7 and while they are thrill riders still, neither has read a HP book and I kind of feel like it is tantamount at least book 1 gets read before we visit..and no the movies do not qualify. I suspect since when I finally do make it to UNI it will probably be a crowded hot summer visit and I may really not appreciate it too much...but I know I will like the resort stay...what's not to like about a Loews hotel..
Anyways today I am feeling your sadness and restrained panic over the end of the visit is near.

It's ok, I always enjoy a compliment

. CSR is certainly a beautiful resort. That Easter egg hunt sounds like so much fun. I've never stayed at a deluxe and have no immediate plans to, but one day I would really like to try AKL. I agree with your thoughts IOA. If they are not Potter fans, it'd be hard to rationalize spending that amount. I agree that the movies don't qualify. While well made, they simply do not compare to the books.

Lyear · Jan 14, 2014

Time for the second to last pic of the day!

We unloaded at the bus stop and made our way to the entrance. I was trying to take it all in. Disney does such a good job with the details and theming of their parks, something I've hit on quite a bit during this trip. It was hard to believe in 2 days I wouldn't be around it anymore.

Right after we went through the gate, we were approached by a cm who asked if we wanted to take a survey. I'm sure she was soon sorry she asked.

"What do you plan to do today?"

"We don't know, maybe check out TSMM, maybe Star Tours."

"Do you plan on seeing any shows?"

"Maybe."

It went on and on for question after question. Besides the standard demographics, we really couldn't give a firm answer. Our plan was to spend the morning at HS, then head over to Epcot. Our fastpass's were for Epcot, as was our dinner reservation at Via Napoli. We literally walked into HS with no agenda. There was something so freeing about that. While the fastpass+ system is nice and very convenient, there's something to be said for having no time restraints, nothing you need to do at a certain time. We got to experience this today at HS.

We decided since it was close to opening, we'd see what the wait was like for TSMM. We went around the hat and swung a left. We could tell immediately it was crowded. 50 minute wait, paper fastpass return times were in the afternoon. Looks like we wouldn't be doing TSMM today. It's alright, it made the our one ride special.

We decided to walk toward Star Tours. We briefly gave some thought to doing the backlot tour, but ended up skipping it. We hadn't done it since our last visit in 2007, but heard they hadn't changed much. We walked down the Streets of America, making our way towards a galaxy far, far away.

It didn't truly hit me that Star Tours now has different stories on their rides until I actually experienced it. This time, we did not see Vader, but we did buzz by the death star, and ended by escaping from Boba Fett. We enjoyed both stories we experienced on Star Tours during our trip. I really enjoy the fact that which story you get is random.

Afterwards, we decided to head across the park towards TOT. On our way I got a picture of the American Idol Experience. One day it'd be nice to try this, but it wasn't to be on this trip.

As we get onto Sunset Boulevard, we run into this.

Since the parks were decorated for Christmas, each park was playing it's own unique Christmas music while we were down there. It was a true inundation of Christmas. I guess having heard Christmas music non-stop for several weeks had gotten to this Hollywood Star. It wasn't yet Thanksgiving after all. She serenaded us with Happy Happy Thanksgiving, to the tune of We Wish you a Merry Christmas. At least she had fun with it.

TOT and RnRC were straight ahead. Our plan was to paper fastpass one and ride the other one. Would we get the thrill ride combo on our second to last day?

And for those interested, the picture of the day can be found inside the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground.

FlaggNL · Jan 15, 2014

Love the TR, seems not to be very crowded

Hope the same in October

Lyear · Jan 23, 2014

Thanks FlaggNL, not crowded at all. Using fastpass, the longest we waited for anything was about 20-30 minutes. You should be good in October as well.

Lyear · Jan 23, 2014

At the end of Sunset Blvd we made the left into the RnRC plaza.

It was showing a 50 minute standby wait. The paper fastpass return time was listed as 2:30-3:30. 50 minutes was longer than we were willing to wait, since we had already done this one, and the fastpass return time was too far away. We sadly decided to skip this one today.

We made the short trek over to TOT. This was only a 20 minute wait. It was really only about 5 minutes until we were loaded into the first room where you get the story. It gave me a few minutes to get some photos. So many photo ops in TOT.

I did a little playing with the colors while taking some shots.

While being in the standby line was nice as it gave me time to get photos, the line was still moving fairly fast. I also found it hard to get clear shots without people. Having so many people around limited the shots I could take without getting one or two heads of people standing in line.

Before long, we found ourselves ready to board our elevator. I'll always remember this ride as being the time we went from being at the very top of the tower, to the very bottom, and back to the very top. I like the fact that the drop/rise sequence is random, making each ride different, but a lot of times it will result in you dropping 1 story, then up two, then dropping one, etc. The full drop/rise made for a great experience. I liked the extended feeling of weightlessness during the extended drop.

As we exited, I asked if Sara wanted to ride again, but she felt that two times might be one too many. We decided to pass, and grab some lunch.

Since we were so close, we walked to Rosie's.

We each got a veggieburger and fries. It was good. I don't remember it now, but looking at the picture, it looks like the burgers had some onion rings on them. I also got another pumpkin cupcake. Yum!

I would recommend the Rosie's area to anyone looking for a quick service meal in HS. They have several different food options here, and I really enjoy the outdoor seating area. You sit right along Sunset Boulevard, with the Tower of Terror serving as your backdrop. The food was fairly standard, but the scenery and outdoor environment made it special.

When we had finished our meal, we discussed our plans. There was nothing else at HS that we felt we must do before we left, and we were excited to get to Epcot. We decided to head towards the exit.

One last photo on our way out. So long Hollywood.

Going from Hollywood to Epcot, or vice versa, is something we typically do at least once on our trips to Disney. We love the boat ride. It's almost an attraction in itself. Some people choose to walk, and claim it is quicker. For me there is something relaxing about being on a boat. It's the same feeling I get when we take the boat from POFQ to DTD. I don't think there is a better transportation option in Disney.

And the scenery is top notch. There is so much to see. I took so many photos. I think others on the boat thought I was a nut bouncing from side to side, but hey, there was an empty seat next to me, I'm going to use it. I was taking the photos with my iphone. Looking back, I wish I had pulled the camera out. I also wish the outside seating had been available (someone was already sitting there when we boarded), as the window glare is evident on the photos.

I love the dolphin resort. So beautiful. One day I'd love to stay there, or at least see the inside.

And the boardwalk. Another place I'd love to take some time to explore sometime. I've heard really good things about Jellyrolls, but never seem to work it into our schedule.

Before we knew it, we found ourselves at the international gateway. Time for Epcot!!!

FlaggNL · Jan 24, 2014

Lyear said:
Thanks FlaggNL, not crowded at all. Using fastpass, the longest we waited for anything was about 20-30 minutes. You should be good in October as well.

Wow that is so different from what I read in a lot of other TR's

We hope that October will also be as good as you describe! Don't know about holidays in USA, the time we go (Oct. 17-Oct. 24) is a holiday week here in Europe

DLP is always very crowded in that week

smk · Jan 24, 2014

Really enjoying!

Lyear · Jan 25, 2014

FlaggNL said:
Wow that is so different from what I read in a lot of other TR's We hope that October will also be as good as you describe! Don't know about holidays in USA, the time we go (Oct. 17-Oct. 24) is a holiday week here in Europe DLP is always very crowded in that week

I can't think of anything specific during that week. I've never been in October, but have been twice in September, and twice in November, and crowds were never really an issue for me. Hopefully you'll have a similar experience.

smk said:
Really enjoying!

Thanks

Lyear · Jan 25, 2014

We arrived back on land at the international gateway. Sara really liked these banners at the entrance.

After taking a necessary bathroom break, we were into Epcot. We had a good bit on our "to do" list today. Epcot still had a good number of boxes for us to check. First up were a few countries around the World Showcase. On our first day, Maelstrom had been down, and we hadn't fit Reflections of China into our schedule. Today we were going to fix this.

We took a left upon entering, and walked through the U.K. and Canada. The weather was absolutely lovely. It would probably contend for most beautiful day of our trip. The sun had come out, and it was warm, but not hot. Back home in Pennsylvania our family was preparing for a cold front, but here we were walking around in shorts and T-shirts.

After a little bit more walking, we arrived in Norway. Maelstrom had a 20 minute wait. At least it was operational. We jumped in line. This is one of the less immersive queues in WDW. Mostly just blue walls with flags. There is a nicely done mural though across from where you load.

Maelstrom is a ride we enjoy. It's nothing too exciting, but it's fun. Sara and I have always gotten a kick out of the troll scene. The ride seemed shorter than I remember, and before I knew it, we were disembarking into the quaint Norwegian sea village. I thought that we had arrived at just the right time. The doors to the theater were open and there was no crowd. I thought the doors had just opened. I realized soon that the show was playing and the theater was about half full.

Apparently in the years since we had last been here, Disney made the decision to keep the doors open and play the movie on a continuous loop. We took a seat, and I would say about half the people exiting the ride took a seat. We were only there for about 3 minutes before the movie ended. We debated sticking around for the start of it, but decided against it.

As we left, we made the left and headed to China. We arrived at a good time, and only had about a 5 minute wait until Reflections began. It's a 360 show, just like Canada. I really enjoy some of the picturesque views you get throughout the movie. Probably one of the more stunning shows in the World Showcase. I'm probably in the minority on this, but I really like the narration as well. It gives a very good description of what you are seeing, and the narration mixed with the background music really gives it a nice feel. Overall I feel the show is well done. We've seen it many times, but a vacation to WDW doesn't feel complete without it. I'm glad we got to it on our last full day.

Once we finished in China, we started the trip towards Future World. On our way, Sara really wanted to do the Three Caballeros boat ride again. Usually we try to do most attractions once, and the ones that we especially like two or more times. I never thought of the Mexico attraction as being one we especially like, but I guess Sara thinks of it differently. She must have really enjoyed the ride on our first day. Honestly, I think it had more to do with it being a nice dark ride through the air conditioning, as it was starting to get a bit hot. We had fun watching Donald being chased around though.

After the 3 caballeros, we decided to check off a few more boxes in Future World. We were not done in World Showcase just yet though. We still had dinner reservations for Via Napoli that night.

Lyear · Jan 26, 2014

When we hit Future World, my first order of business was to convince Sara to head towards Test Track. I really wanted to try this one again since it was so much fun our first time. It didn't take too much convincing to get her there. However, when we arrived we realized it was a 60 minute wait. The paper fastpass machines were not operational. They may have been out for the day. We agreed that while Test Track was fun, 60 minutes was a bit too long, and moved on.

We then found ourselves at Ellen's Energy Adventure.

This is another ride where our vacation doesn't seem complete without riding it. It's not the best ride, but it's sort of a tradition for us. We enjoy the corny jokes, the outdated characters, seeing Alex Trebek with a mustache, etc. Actually, seeing Alex Trebek with a mustache is completely awesome.

I honestly think Sara's favorite part about the ride is the fact that it is an extended, seated ride with air conditioning. Gotta admit, that's pretty important. It's a ride that honestly is quite due for an update, but I know two people who will be sad if that day comes.

While we were deciding where to go next, I happened to look up at just the right time to catch this.

We decided to spend some time walking through Innoventions, since we had some time to kill before our first fastpass+ for Nemo. Yes, you heard right, we used a fastpass+ on Nemo. We weren't a big fan of the tiered choice system in Epcot.

I've always been sort of intimidated by Innoventions. I'm sure it's more me than anything Disney did. I just feel like it's hard to know where to start with most things. The layout isn't always the most clear. There's a few exhibits that look interesting, but I'm never sure how to get involved. It seems like the more popular exhibits have large crowds, and I really can't justify waiting. Also, for a lot of the attractions, I feel like if I did wait, I'd be taking a spot away from a child, and that's something I'm not comfortable with. It could just be me. It is something I'd love to take more time to explore some day, but it seems it never works out.

While we were in there, we did do the storm simulator. It was ok. We saw the Sum of All Thrills, which seemed to be a very popular one, but there was no way I was doing that after experiencing Harry Potter's Forbidden Journey the day before.

We made our way out and into the other side. We were on our way to Nemo, but as we were walking, Sara noticed the photo spot for Chase Disney Visa card members. We had totally forgotten about this cardmember "perk" until now, and decided to jump in line. They had the characters behind a black curtain, and wouldn't tell us who was there until it was our turn. When we went behind the curtain, it was Minnie and Pluto waiting for us. Minnie loved Sara's nails, and she enthusiastically wished me a happy birthday. At least it was as enthusiastically as she could, without the ability to use words. She pointed to my pin and gave me a thumbs up and a hug. We then quickly lined up for the picture. Here was the photo we took with our camera. We also had an actual photopass picture taken, and would get a free 5x7 thanks to our Visa card.

One last thing I need to add about Innoventions, on our way out we ran into a cast member named Ed (I think). Ed had been there for several years, and was very knowledgeable about all things Disney. We ended up having a 10 minute conversation with him, and it was truly a treat for us. After going from Universal yesterday to this interaction today, it really solidified my thought of how cast members make such a difference at Disney.

After exiting Innoventions, we found ourselves at...

Mine...Mine...Mine...

Sara thought this was a neat vantage point of SSE as we entered. Too bad the detail didn't quite turn out.

Once inside, our fastpass+ saved us about 15 seconds as we didn't have to walk through the long queue. Yes, the ride was a walk-on. After riding, we wanted to do what I feel is the star of this pavilion, Turtle Talk with Crush. There was a show starting shortly, so we decided not to take in any of the observation area. Sadly we would not get back to do it later. I always enjoy seeing the aquarium there when we get a chance.

I had done turtle talk about 3 times before, and each time I was almost falling out of my seat laughing. Maybe I had too high of expectations today, but I didn't feel it was as good. Some of it may have been the audience. Crush kept asking the children what they liked to eat, and each one (3 in all) said "food."

Not much you can do with that. At one point, one of the dad's yelled out "Turtle," which Crush thought was totally uncool.

As we exited the Seas, we were feeling pretty accomplished. We had ridden everything in Epcot that we felt was a "must do." The rest of the night was going to be cake, with a little Italian mixed in.