July 21st, I drove 10 hours from South Carolina all the way to Orlando Florida with four friends for my senior trip!! I did the whole online check in thing on my phone... It was amazingly convenient!! After we got all our stuff into the room, we headed back out to the van to go to Walmart to get cereal, milk, and ponchos because it was supposed to rain all week (which it did, except on the 21st at AK). We stayed in the lion king suite at Disney's Art of Animation resort. It was super nice!!! I don't see why anyone would need to stay at a "nicer" hotel... The value resorts are gorgeous! Especially AoA! Unless its for transportation convenience. But.. To each their own!
First day was Hollywood Studios! This was the worst of the rainy days. We tried to get on Toy Story Mania first thing but it was only open for FP+. Later in the day though, we got to ride. THANK THE LOOOOORD Toy Story Mania has that new track! The old track broke down and we were re-located to the new track. I had never been on TSM in WDW, only in DL. So it was neat to see both stations. It was about a 35 minute wait, not including the re-location despite the 55 minute wait time sign on the outside of the building.
We had FP+s for Star Tours, which was needed because the rain drove everyone into the queue. It was a 75 minute wait for Star Tours. We also had fastpasses for Tower of Terror, also crowded. And Rockin' Roller Coaster, which didn't have a long standby but a butt load of fastpassers. We had dining reservations at the Hollywood & Vine buffet. It was very good! The seafood Macaroni and Cheese was ON FLEEK! Everything else we did at HS: Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular (we waited for the 2:00 show but was cancelled because of the storm, so we sat in the theatre until 3:00 and watched that show which was cut short right after the village scene), Muppet Vision 3D (Can they refurb the statler and waldorf animatronics?), Voyage of the Little Mermaid (Not as good as I remember it being... But I haven't seen it since I was 12), The Great Movie Ride (Why can't all of the animatronics be on par with the wicked witch? I feel like it would make the attraction much more impressive), Star Wars Launch Bay (Meh... Not a Star Wars fan, but the meet and greets are fun), Star Wars: Path of the Jedi (Literally only went here to take a nap until our next fastpasses were up. Not much to do in this park and this film sucks.) Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage (Still a great show!) We also went to Celebrity Spotlight to get a picture with Olaf! We finally ended the day with Fantasmic! which was Joanie's, one of my friends, favorite thing in all of WDW.
Day #2 was Magic Kingdom! The crowds were a bit bigger here, but we still got a lot done! We had dining reservations at the Crystal Palace which has always been nice. We used FP+ for Pirates of the Caribbean, 7 Dwarves Mine Train, Space Mountain, and I glitched the system and got a FP+ for The Haunted Mansion as well. Basically, RIGHT after we used our FP+ to get onto Space Mountain, I pushed "cancel" on the Space Mountain FP+ option and changed it to Haunted Mansion. All attractions were great!
We started the day doing Big Thunder Mountain first... Splash Mountain was closed from like 9 to 10 so we then went on Jungle Cruise. We had a really good skipper. We then went back and rode Splash Mountain and watched The Country Bear Jamboree. Everything else we did... Hall of Presidents, Buzz Lightyear's SpaceRanger Spin, PeopleMover, Carousel of Progress (cringeworthy...), Stitch's Great Escape (Had a 20 minute wait believe it or not. The speakers on my seat weren't working), Laugh Floor Comedy Club, The Enchanted Tiki Room (Boring. Everybody was bored. Even I was bored. Not a single one of my friends liked it.), It's a Small World, Mad Tea Party (forgot how fun this actually was!), Mickey's Philharmagic, and Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid.
I forgot to mention that we had the free counter service dining plan during our trip for our dinners! At HS, we ate at that outdoor place outside of Fantasmic, at MK we ate at Cosmic Ray's, at EPCOT we ate at The American Adventure pavilion, and at AK we ate at Restaurantasaurus.
Day #3: EPCOT... We arrived at rope drop to go on Test Track since we didn't have a FP+ for it. So we got there and it was broken down. So we got there early to wait 45 minutes for it to open. That line really piled up though! It was worth the wait. We used our FP+s for Mission: Space and Frozen Ever After. Frozen Ever After looked SOOO much better on YouTube... It was really underwhelming. It sucks big time. I hate it. It's boring. It's awkward. Especially when like three of the animatronics are frozen. No pun intended. We skipped out FP+ for Epcot Character Spot, because we had basically already met all of the characters during our dining. We ate at the Garden Grill. I never understood why this place gets so much flack! The all-you-can-eat style was amazing, the waitress was fun, the characters are big goofballs, and the food is DEEEELICCCIOUS!
Everything else we did: Ellen's Energy Adventure (In horrible shape, but my friend Joanie, who can't ride any kind of thrill, LOOOVED this attraction. So I guess it was alright.), Journey Into Imagination with Figment, Living with the Land, Soarin' Around the World (We skipped Illuminations and went to ride this at 8:30 instead. IT WAS A WALK ON!! but it was a 90 minute wait during the day), The Seas with Nemo & Friends, Turtle Talk with Crush (The Finding Dory additions were fun), Spaceship Earth, Anna & Elsa Meet & Greet (The queue line is awesome!), The American Adventure, O Canada!, Reflections of China, Impressions de France, SUM of All Thrills (Yep! It's still there! WOO!).
Day #4 was spent at Animal Kingdom. We left at 11:00 AM to go here because there's not much to do and nobody was really interested in the nighttime things anyways, so we left early as well. We used our FP+ for Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Primevil Whirl, and I glitched the system again so we used it for DINOSAUR. DINOSAUR is still my favorite thrill ride, but it definitely needs this upcoming refurb. The animatronics are kind of sad except for the big ones. And why have the lights turn on for those little tiny dinos that are supposed to jump across the vehicle if they don't work? The first time we rode, we waited 20 minutes because there was a lot of fastpasses and a giant Brazilian tour group in front of us. The second time we used the FP+ was pointless. Everything else we did: It's Tough to be a Bug!, TriceraTop Spin, Festival of the Lion King, Flights of Wonder, and Finding Nemo: The Musical. (Finding Nemo is still my all-time favorite musical show at any Disney park. What gets me is why everyone, including all of my friends love the lion king show. I mean, it's okay. But it's really not that great outside of the fire dude. It kind sucks in my opinion. But then everyone in my group didn't really like Finding Nemo. What gives!?)
FUN STORY!!!!! So I left my debit card at the Garden Grill in EPCOT. And since we had the free counter service plan, I didn't notice that I lost it until we were at the Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom. I didn't freak out though. I kept my cool and planned it out. After we got back from AK to the hotel, guest services called Lost & Found to see if they had it, they did! But they were closed. NEWS FLASH: Lost & Found at the Transportation & Ticket Center is only open from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm. So on the VERY last day that we drive home, I take a bus to epcot to get on a monorail to the transportation & ticket center. Retrieved my card. Then took the monorail back to Epcot (beautiful ride) and bus back to the hotel. Then we leave to go home!
It was an AWESOME trip! The extreme heat and the crowds didn't really get to us! It was pleasant.
First day was Hollywood Studios! This was the worst of the rainy days. We tried to get on Toy Story Mania first thing but it was only open for FP+. Later in the day though, we got to ride. THANK THE LOOOOORD Toy Story Mania has that new track! The old track broke down and we were re-located to the new track. I had never been on TSM in WDW, only in DL. So it was neat to see both stations. It was about a 35 minute wait, not including the re-location despite the 55 minute wait time sign on the outside of the building.
We had FP+s for Star Tours, which was needed because the rain drove everyone into the queue. It was a 75 minute wait for Star Tours. We also had fastpasses for Tower of Terror, also crowded. And Rockin' Roller Coaster, which didn't have a long standby but a butt load of fastpassers. We had dining reservations at the Hollywood & Vine buffet. It was very good! The seafood Macaroni and Cheese was ON FLEEK! Everything else we did at HS: Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular (we waited for the 2:00 show but was cancelled because of the storm, so we sat in the theatre until 3:00 and watched that show which was cut short right after the village scene), Muppet Vision 3D (Can they refurb the statler and waldorf animatronics?), Voyage of the Little Mermaid (Not as good as I remember it being... But I haven't seen it since I was 12), The Great Movie Ride (Why can't all of the animatronics be on par with the wicked witch? I feel like it would make the attraction much more impressive), Star Wars Launch Bay (Meh... Not a Star Wars fan, but the meet and greets are fun), Star Wars: Path of the Jedi (Literally only went here to take a nap until our next fastpasses were up. Not much to do in this park and this film sucks.) Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage (Still a great show!) We also went to Celebrity Spotlight to get a picture with Olaf! We finally ended the day with Fantasmic! which was Joanie's, one of my friends, favorite thing in all of WDW.
Day #2 was Magic Kingdom! The crowds were a bit bigger here, but we still got a lot done! We had dining reservations at the Crystal Palace which has always been nice. We used FP+ for Pirates of the Caribbean, 7 Dwarves Mine Train, Space Mountain, and I glitched the system and got a FP+ for The Haunted Mansion as well. Basically, RIGHT after we used our FP+ to get onto Space Mountain, I pushed "cancel" on the Space Mountain FP+ option and changed it to Haunted Mansion. All attractions were great!
We started the day doing Big Thunder Mountain first... Splash Mountain was closed from like 9 to 10 so we then went on Jungle Cruise. We had a really good skipper. We then went back and rode Splash Mountain and watched The Country Bear Jamboree. Everything else we did... Hall of Presidents, Buzz Lightyear's SpaceRanger Spin, PeopleMover, Carousel of Progress (cringeworthy...), Stitch's Great Escape (Had a 20 minute wait believe it or not. The speakers on my seat weren't working), Laugh Floor Comedy Club, The Enchanted Tiki Room (Boring. Everybody was bored. Even I was bored. Not a single one of my friends liked it.), It's a Small World, Mad Tea Party (forgot how fun this actually was!), Mickey's Philharmagic, and Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid.
I forgot to mention that we had the free counter service dining plan during our trip for our dinners! At HS, we ate at that outdoor place outside of Fantasmic, at MK we ate at Cosmic Ray's, at EPCOT we ate at The American Adventure pavilion, and at AK we ate at Restaurantasaurus.
Day #3: EPCOT... We arrived at rope drop to go on Test Track since we didn't have a FP+ for it. So we got there and it was broken down. So we got there early to wait 45 minutes for it to open. That line really piled up though! It was worth the wait. We used our FP+s for Mission: Space and Frozen Ever After. Frozen Ever After looked SOOO much better on YouTube... It was really underwhelming. It sucks big time. I hate it. It's boring. It's awkward. Especially when like three of the animatronics are frozen. No pun intended. We skipped out FP+ for Epcot Character Spot, because we had basically already met all of the characters during our dining. We ate at the Garden Grill. I never understood why this place gets so much flack! The all-you-can-eat style was amazing, the waitress was fun, the characters are big goofballs, and the food is DEEEELICCCIOUS!
Everything else we did: Ellen's Energy Adventure (In horrible shape, but my friend Joanie, who can't ride any kind of thrill, LOOOVED this attraction. So I guess it was alright.), Journey Into Imagination with Figment, Living with the Land, Soarin' Around the World (We skipped Illuminations and went to ride this at 8:30 instead. IT WAS A WALK ON!! but it was a 90 minute wait during the day), The Seas with Nemo & Friends, Turtle Talk with Crush (The Finding Dory additions were fun), Spaceship Earth, Anna & Elsa Meet & Greet (The queue line is awesome!), The American Adventure, O Canada!, Reflections of China, Impressions de France, SUM of All Thrills (Yep! It's still there! WOO!).
Day #4 was spent at Animal Kingdom. We left at 11:00 AM to go here because there's not much to do and nobody was really interested in the nighttime things anyways, so we left early as well. We used our FP+ for Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Primevil Whirl, and I glitched the system again so we used it for DINOSAUR. DINOSAUR is still my favorite thrill ride, but it definitely needs this upcoming refurb. The animatronics are kind of sad except for the big ones. And why have the lights turn on for those little tiny dinos that are supposed to jump across the vehicle if they don't work? The first time we rode, we waited 20 minutes because there was a lot of fastpasses and a giant Brazilian tour group in front of us. The second time we used the FP+ was pointless. Everything else we did: It's Tough to be a Bug!, TriceraTop Spin, Festival of the Lion King, Flights of Wonder, and Finding Nemo: The Musical. (Finding Nemo is still my all-time favorite musical show at any Disney park. What gets me is why everyone, including all of my friends love the lion king show. I mean, it's okay. But it's really not that great outside of the fire dude. It kind sucks in my opinion. But then everyone in my group didn't really like Finding Nemo. What gives!?)
FUN STORY!!!!! So I left my debit card at the Garden Grill in EPCOT. And since we had the free counter service plan, I didn't notice that I lost it until we were at the Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom. I didn't freak out though. I kept my cool and planned it out. After we got back from AK to the hotel, guest services called Lost & Found to see if they had it, they did! But they were closed. NEWS FLASH: Lost & Found at the Transportation & Ticket Center is only open from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm. So on the VERY last day that we drive home, I take a bus to epcot to get on a monorail to the transportation & ticket center. Retrieved my card. Then took the monorail back to Epcot (beautiful ride) and bus back to the hotel. Then we leave to go home!
It was an AWESOME trip! The extreme heat and the crowds didn't really get to us! It was pleasant.
