Maria does Disneyworld.....again!

This is the thread where I will write my trip report..

I finally went back to Disney! Last time I was there was in December 99 when I was working there, so I was really looking forward to the chance of going back and I finally was able to do it last month for a short stay, but a very fun one!

I was in Orlando from Thursday April 26th to Sunday April 29th. Then I continued my trip in Ft Lauderdale. :king:

Characters: my friend Beatriz, Cliff and I. My friend had only been to Epcot but not the other parks. I´ll report the highlights, of course..

On Thursday, my friend and I drove from Ft. Lauderdale in an ugly PT Cruiser (we both dislike that car and that´s what they had for us at the rental!) to MGM Studios where we started with ToT: we loved it!! I had not tried it with belts for everybody and so many drops - it was awesome. We fastpassed RnRC which ALWAYS had a long line! Even with the fast pass I was getting desperate doing a 45 min line! It was worth it though - always loved that one and Beatriz, who kept asking me if the line was worth it, was delighted! That was the last thing we did at this park because then we moved to MK.

Very intelligent of me -haha- chose a different park on an extra magic night for MK, so Beatriz was shocked when we got to MK and the HUGE crowd was waiting for the 9pm Spectromagic. We of course, walked right in the middle of Main Street while everyone waited on the sides, so unbelievable as it sounds, a friend from our city saw us! While the first Spectromagic was going on, we waited one hour in line for Space Mountain (that was the longest line we did in all the parks). I got scared at the last minute when I noticed for the first time the cars and the track waaay up high! I rode it anyway and had a blast as always.

We got off right on time to see Wishes and then rushed to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. Awesome job to include the movie in it and Jack Sparrow - he looks sooooo real! Loved it!
We also rode Splash Mountain with no line at all that night and then started the walk to the exit of the park with a great view of the 11pm Spectromagic with almost noone around!
We then drove back to our hotel and crashed. We were sooo tired!
 

Maria

New Member
Original Poster
Day 2

On Friday, Cliff joined us and the three of us went to Animal Kingdom - God how I like this park!

We did Expedition Everest twice - one with the fast pass and the second one without it - we enjoyed the queue area and the ride was fabulous! It was a blast!

We also saw Finding Nemo - absolutely amazing! We felt like if we were "under the sea" and the show was so cute!! I didn´t miss Tarzan AT ALL.

Festival of the Lion King with the closed theater and the a/c was a brilliant idea. Kali River Rapids and the Safari, just as I remembered them - a lot of fun.... JAMBO!

I was looking forward to a fast meal that didn´t include french fries and we fund a delicious Chicken Caesar Salad in this park - we were in heaven...

When we left AK, we moved to MGM to see Fantasmic! - Beatriz found seats right in the middle of VERY crowded bleachers and I had my traditional beer and very salty pretzel while the show began.

From there, Cliff left a t-shirt I had given him on the tram to the parking lot so he ran around trying to get it back with no luck... for that night.
Since he had also forgotten his clothes at home that morning, we went to always reliable good ol' 24 hours SUPER WALMART to get him clothes and toiletries. I used to go shopping there at midnight when I lived there, so it was nice to be back at that time of the day - LOL I ended up shopping for some stuff and a pair of shoes that I really like! yeay! hahaha

From there, it was time to crash again!
 

Maria

New Member
Original Poster
Day 3

Saturday... Cliff took Beatriz to the airport as she was flying to Cape Coral for a reunion and then we went for breakfast to a MC Donalds - God knows where it was but get this: it was decorated outside and inside as if it was in Key West!! It was awesome!! We had to get it on film - the furniture, the walls, the exterior, the decoration, everything!! It even had a fish tank! Then the ladies restroom had 21 mirrors!! All with big gold frames. Very cool.

So from there, we moved to my heart´s favorite park: Epcot. Unfortunately, due to my friend´s schedule, I went there on a saturday and couldn´t see my friends backstage or on stage because they were not working or performing that day. Oh well...
We started with Soaring - really relaxing, beautiful music and with the wind on our faces, we just enjoyed the ride.

Then we went to Mission:Space.... I can not begin to tell you how dissapointed I was about this one! I had read sooooo much about it that my expectations were real high. I rode the "difficult" one and seriously, I think it was lame! I don´t understand what the fuzz about it is! It´s not even scary! Of course, Cliff had told me to look straight ahead so I didn´t get dizzy, although I highly doubt I would have been affected by such a tame ride... :animwink:

Flower and Garden Festival is, along with Christmas time, my favorite time to see the park so I was delighted with so many flowers around.

We did World Showcase, checked out the live entertainment, and of course, didn´t forget to check the new River of Time at the Mexican Pavillion. I was so happy to see the queue area cleaner, better illuminated, and with better controls for the boats. Inside of it is a lot nicer too, I couldn´t stand the carrousel with those dead bodies hanging from it, so seeing it gone was the best part of it! LOL ...and a huge colorful Margarita with an empty stomach is highly recommended!! :sohappy:

We watched IllumiNations - beautiful as always... no words to describe it.

From there, we tried to get into Ohana´s for dinner as it is my favorite restaurant but we had no luck, we got there too late. The hostess told me to get back the day after at openning time so we could get in.

We sat at the little beach at the Poly but it was getting too humid and I started freezing so we moved to Planet Hollywood for dinner where I kept freezing - lol. One of those typical Orlando days in which mornings and afternoons are hot but nights get really chilly.... at least for me! Flashbacks of my time living there.... and a sorethroat the next morning... lol :animwink:
 

Maria

New Member
Original Poster
Day 4... and last :(

On Sunday, we started earlier and went to see The Commons, where I lived, then went to see Mary Queen of the Universe Shrine where I used to go to church and from there, went to Boma for breakfast!

I really wanted to see the Animal Kingdom Lodge as I had read so much about it and Boma on here. It was very good! The hotel is awesome! loved the pool area - it looks like a lake! ...and that 4 stories lobby! wow...

After such a big breakfast, we hit MK. Walked around the park and rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, saw Phillarmagic that was soo cute!! Very nice. There were so many people in Fantasyland! I had forgoten about that...!

We did Pirates again betting on which side of the line would go faster because it´s shorter - I won... but I can´t remember now which side it was! :brick:

The Haunted Mansion, another classic and we kept on going through classic ones - not Country Bear Jamboree and the Tiki Room per my request! LOL

We left to go to Ohana´s but Cliff had to lose something else: our Photopass card! So we had to go to the Photo Center at MK and find ourselves among more than 5,000 pictures taken in a two hour frame just at Future World in Epcot!! (cause he lost it on saturday there). I thought we wouldn´t do it, but we only had seen about ten pages of pictures when we found ours and merged them with Sunday´s pictures at MK. Pheeeew!!
**Tip**: take a picture of your card, just in case the same thing happens to you! It will be a lot easier to find the number and merge it with the new one. ;)

Soooooo... we were late for Ohana´s and couldn´t get in.... but I begged! LOL Thank God a manager was passing by and heard my story and made a very magical moment for us and gave us a pager to wait for a table.

BUT... Cliff had lost that t-shirt two days ago, remember? I had kept the receipt and he filed a report at GR and they were giving it back to him but we had to be there before park closing, so it was dinner at Ohana´s or getting the t-shirt back (a Pirate's one, may I say...). Once again, the manager heard our problem and he accepted us when we got back almost two hours later without having to wait for a table. Our table was by the window, so as a plus, we were able to see Wishes from there! Delicious food but I miss that banana bread they used to do in the wood oven.
I would just kick that guy with the guitar out of the place! I absolutely hated having him singing and the kids (and adults) running and dancing around the tables, specially because the place was full! It was an annoyance to a perfect dinner.

Around 11pm, we got on the road for Ft. Lauderdale and arrived around 2am, beaten! I am sure Cliff was more tired than me because I slept good part of the way, waking up to change his Ipod hard rock music... hehe... sorry Cliff! :animwink: ....and thank you! :)
 

Maria

New Member
Original Poster
More to come...

I am tired so, later, more stories about

- pooped girl at MK?
- the death of my tennis shoes
- queue timing girl
- psycho woman
- .....and any other funny thing that Cliff remembers and wants to elaborate on! :D

:wave:
 

Computer Magic

Well-Known Member
Great Report. I love to read trip reports from people that haven't been to Disney in a long time. You can tell it brought back good memories for you.

Did you say you worked at Disney in the past?
 

Maria

New Member
Original Poster
Great Report. I love to read trip reports from people that haven't been to Disney in a long time. You can tell it brought back good memories for you.

Did you say you worked at Disney in the past?

Hi, thank you!

Yes, I worked in Epcot 98-99 when the Millennium celebration started. It did bring back tons of memories! :)
 

Maria

New Member
Original Poster
Nice to see you around again, Maria. I missed you at AK by one day...

Hi! You know what? It just hit me that I should have checked this website to see who was going to be there the same days as me! :brick:
I really had no time for anything the days before leaving for Orlando... :( I used it to check park schedules but nothing else...
 

Maria

New Member
Original Poster
Buh bye Nike´s

Writing about it is not as funny as if I could show you a video of the moment (or act it for you - lol) when it happened.

Since I prefer high heels than tennis, they are not really comfy for me and only wear them a few times when traveling or when I decide to do some exercise... (that makes the percentage of usage get veeery loooow).

We were watching the 11pm Spectromagic at Adventureland when I thought I had stepped on some tape cause it felt sticky (rubbery). I was not going to miss anything in the parade, so I kept trying to scrapp it off on the street without looking. Then I thought I would pull it with my hand and the minute I did it, I felt how I was ripping off the sole!

In shock (and laughing in disbelief), I opened my bag and chewed my last green gum... then used it to stick the sole to the shoe. I so wished Cliff had been there with the video camera, cause I couldn´t stop laughing while walking funny to the entrance of the park when I went to GR to ask for some glue. The cast member went to the back of the office and brings me laughing the only thing they had - those glue bars for letters and such. I used it... anything could be better than my gum. The funny thing is that when you step on gum it always sticks there and now that I needed it, it kept falling to the sides without helping my cause.

Cliff was coming the next morning so he had to bring me some other glue to fix the problem. I had brought a pair of flip flops so I wore them the rest of the days - they were sooooooo comfy that I proved once again that tennis shoes are not for me. :animwink:
 

Mikester71

Well-Known Member
Writing about it is not as funny as if I could show you a video of the moment (or act it for you - lol) when it happened.

Since I prefer high heels than tennis, they are not really comfy for me and only wear them a few times when traveling or when I decide to do some exercise... (that makes the percentage of usage get veeery loooow).

We were watching the 11pm Spectromagic at Adventureland when I thought I had stepped on some tape cause it felt sticky (rubbery). I was not going to miss anything in the parade, so I kept trying to scrapp it off on the street without looking. Then I thought I would pull it with my hand and the minute I did it, I felt how I was ripping off the sole!

In shock (and laughing in disbelief), I opened my back and chewed my last green gum... then used it to stick the sole to the shoe. I so wished Cliff had been there with the video camera, cause I couldn´t stop laughing while walking funny to the entrance of the park when I went to GR to ask for some glue. The cast member went to the back of the office and brings me laughing the only thing they had - those glue bars for letters and such. I used it... anything could be better than my gum. The funny thing is that when you step on gum it always sticks there and now that I needed it, it kept falling to the sides without helping my cause.

Cliff was coming the next morning so he had to bring me some other glue to fix the problem. I had brought a pair of flip flops so I wore them the rest of the days - they were sooooooo comfy that I proved once again that tennis shoes are not for me. :animwink:

:ROFLOL:That is hilarious! A true MacGyver moment if ever there was one.
 

Cliff

Well-Known Member
I'm just reading Maria's posts here and compairing them to my memory of what happened. I'd say it's pretty close but not 100%

I don't seem to remember forgetting or losing anything on that trip!:D

CT : - )
 

Maria

New Member
Original Poster
I'm just reading Maria's posts here and compairing them to my memory of what happened. I'd say it's pretty close but not 100%

I don't seem to remember forgetting or losing anything on that trip!:D

CT : - )

Well of course you would forget it :drevil:

The word of the dayS: "forget"!.... and then my word of the dayS: "forgive". It was "forget and forgive", not "forgive and forget" :lol:

Right C? :p :kiss:
 

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