My 32 (28 Awake!) Hour Trip Report (Parts 1 and 2)
Hey everyone! Those of you who know me know that I'm not a particularly spur-of-the-moment person... Which is why I am still shell-shocked to find myself in the Ft. Lauderdale airport right now, typing up this trip report for a trip that I didn't even think I was taking a week ago!!!
Nutshell: One of my best friends is an international relief worker is back in North America (from Ghana, Africa) for a few weeks. We decided to meet up in Florida this weekend at another friend's place (who lives in Ft. Lauderdale)... and we had the brilliant idea to break in my brand new AP and go to WDW for a night (while they're not as chronic as I am, they're pretty big WDW nuts too!)
So let me go chronologically:
Sunday morning: We leave Lauderdale at 7:00 in the morning (a big feat for the relief worker as she is NOT a morning person), and we headed straight to Epcot. Rode Mission Space and Soarin' (WOW! I had no idea it would be that terriffic!!!!), and bought margaritas in Mexico in order to walk around World Showcase.
Technical stuff for all of you other nuts out there: Got a fast pass for Soarin' at 10:45, with a return time of 1:20, which I thought was pretty good. The standby line at that point was 70 mins. We didn't FP M:S but the wait was 30 minutes (40 min. posted). All in all, Epcot was pretty crowded, but it wasn't nuts.
Left Epcot at 3:00, headed over to Riverside to check in. I had never stayed there before, but it was beautiful! Well appointed and comfortable rooms and the grounds were amazing! I'm just sad I didn't get to explore the hotel more...
We changed, and headed over to MGM for a 4:25 AR at the 50's PT Café. As always, YUMMY and a whole lot of fun! My friends couldn't believe how great the food was!
We then headed over to Star Tours (5 minute posted wait, 15 minute actual wait), and saw Indy. It was raining at that point, and so they only did the Cairo crowd scene stunt (on a big mat under the awning) and the exploding truck scene, which was too bad. I'm looking forward to going back and seeing the full thing - I forgot how much fun it was.
Afterwards, we tried to get a FP for the RnRC (about 6:45) but there were none left!! And while the standby wait time board was broken, the CM told us that the wait time was around 50 minutes. Instead, we got a FP for the ToT and got in the standby line. To my amazement, the standby wait was less than a half hour...
After that, there was only an hour left until Fantasmic, and since the park was insanely busy (stupid EMH nights!), we went in. Oddly enough, the theater was pretty empty and really only started to get full about half an hour before showtime. While it had been pouring all day, the sky totally cleared up for the show itself, which was awesome!!!
A side note: Evening EMH hours at MGM are absolutely ridiculous. STAY AWAY! There was a 45 minute wait to get a bracelet at the RnRC area and there were more people at that point than I had ever seen at the park. If you must stay get a bracelet, go to the early Fantasmic show, and get your bracelet there. There was no wait for one there.
Coming up soon - Sunday night at Pleasure Island, and Monday at the Magic Kingdom!!! (Did I mention that we didn't sleep? Yeah... My feet are still killing me!!!)
Hey everyone! Those of you who know me know that I'm not a particularly spur-of-the-moment person... Which is why I am still shell-shocked to find myself in the Ft. Lauderdale airport right now, typing up this trip report for a trip that I didn't even think I was taking a week ago!!!
Nutshell: One of my best friends is an international relief worker is back in North America (from Ghana, Africa) for a few weeks. We decided to meet up in Florida this weekend at another friend's place (who lives in Ft. Lauderdale)... and we had the brilliant idea to break in my brand new AP and go to WDW for a night (while they're not as chronic as I am, they're pretty big WDW nuts too!)
So let me go chronologically:
Sunday morning: We leave Lauderdale at 7:00 in the morning (a big feat for the relief worker as she is NOT a morning person), and we headed straight to Epcot. Rode Mission Space and Soarin' (WOW! I had no idea it would be that terriffic!!!!), and bought margaritas in Mexico in order to walk around World Showcase.
Technical stuff for all of you other nuts out there: Got a fast pass for Soarin' at 10:45, with a return time of 1:20, which I thought was pretty good. The standby line at that point was 70 mins. We didn't FP M:S but the wait was 30 minutes (40 min. posted). All in all, Epcot was pretty crowded, but it wasn't nuts.
Left Epcot at 3:00, headed over to Riverside to check in. I had never stayed there before, but it was beautiful! Well appointed and comfortable rooms and the grounds were amazing! I'm just sad I didn't get to explore the hotel more...
We changed, and headed over to MGM for a 4:25 AR at the 50's PT Café. As always, YUMMY and a whole lot of fun! My friends couldn't believe how great the food was!
We then headed over to Star Tours (5 minute posted wait, 15 minute actual wait), and saw Indy. It was raining at that point, and so they only did the Cairo crowd scene stunt (on a big mat under the awning) and the exploding truck scene, which was too bad. I'm looking forward to going back and seeing the full thing - I forgot how much fun it was.
Afterwards, we tried to get a FP for the RnRC (about 6:45) but there were none left!! And while the standby wait time board was broken, the CM told us that the wait time was around 50 minutes. Instead, we got a FP for the ToT and got in the standby line. To my amazement, the standby wait was less than a half hour...
After that, there was only an hour left until Fantasmic, and since the park was insanely busy (stupid EMH nights!), we went in. Oddly enough, the theater was pretty empty and really only started to get full about half an hour before showtime. While it had been pouring all day, the sky totally cleared up for the show itself, which was awesome!!!
A side note: Evening EMH hours at MGM are absolutely ridiculous. STAY AWAY! There was a 45 minute wait to get a bracelet at the RnRC area and there were more people at that point than I had ever seen at the park. If you must stay get a bracelet, go to the early Fantasmic show, and get your bracelet there. There was no wait for one there.
Coming up soon - Sunday night at Pleasure Island, and Monday at the Magic Kingdom!!! (Did I mention that we didn't sleep? Yeah... My feet are still killing me!!!)