Hey all! Just returned from a fantastic trip to WDW and the depression is setting in. . . 
But it was a great trip!
11/4/2004
Head over to meet 26 y/o cousing Jean to go to airport for 6:55 am flight from GR to Philly. It was mighty early (4 am) when we left the house but all good b/c I was pretty excited to return to the World after almost 20 months away. As we boarded our first flight, the flight attendants complimented our luggage as we both decorated ours with flower, thong sandal, and other fun iron-ons to better recognize our boring black luggage. The flight was bit bumpy but we arrived at Philly on time and waited for the flight to MCO. The plane was overbooked so we were delayed from our 10:30 take off to after 11:20 while they enticed people to take a later flight (difficult to do since it was NJ week and many people refused to get off the plane). Eventually we got out of the airports tangled rush hour runway and landed in MCO over 40m late. We met our driver from Quicksilver, Chris, who was great and shared with us a lot of info about the Hurricane recovery efforts throughout the Orlando area. After a quick stop at Publix, we were off the WDW and arrived at Pop with an uneventful drive.
All I can say about Pop is WHOA WOW AWESOME! I love the theming and the fun atmosphere! Our check in was rather short but our walk to room 7134, in the 90's, was so long after a long day of travelling. Our luggage arrived within 30m of us finding our room so we freshened up and headed over the MK for some fun.
Once I saw the Castle I was misty-eyed and knew I was in WDW! It was beeyootiful in all it's glory! Jean teased me and we laughed as we made our way over to Tomorrowland to find SGE with a 45m wait. With FP still not available for SGE we headed over to SpaceM and grabbed a fast pass. While we waited for our FP time, we rode TTA, Haunted Mansion, Philharmagic and CoP. I love "It's a great big beautiful tomorrow". The song was the theme of our trip after that. We rode SpM and caught part of Spectromagic before the tiredness crept in and we headed back to our room to crash.
11/5/2004
Today we started our day with breakfast at AK with Donald, Mickey, Goofy, and Pluto at Restaurantosaurus. We were the first to meet the characters but were seated by the door in the garage (not good seating). The food was pretty tasty but nothing to write home about. It was a fun thing to do but Jean realized that she left her wallet in our rom so we headed back to Pop after our meal. As we were headed to the busses, AK was filling up so we headed to Disney Studios rather than to return to AK.
After Jean secured her wallet and gained back her piece of mind, we first obtained a FP for ToT and rode RnR. Both were awesome! We love them so much and even bought the cheesy pic from ToT. We had a great time chatting with those around us in line and got to meet some fun people from NC and London. After that we headed over to Star Tours. I love that corny pre-ride film showing the furry beings load the transporter!
Ater returning to Earth, we wandered our way over to One Man's Dream, the Animation show, and used FP for Little Mermaid. It was my first time catching LM and the use of the cm's in dark clothing and the black-lit puppets was cool. I got so caught up in the show that I dropped my sunglasses on the floor and could not find them after the theatre cleared. I checked with the store to the right of the exit and was pleased to find someone had turned them in. Yay for nice people! (This was the first of many times I left behind, dropped out of my pocket, or misplaced my sunglasses/glasses case during our trip.)
We headed over to Muppets 3D and then caught the Stars and Motorcars parade as we made our way to Prime Time for our 4:15 PS. Our server was fun, I think his name was Brad, but I'm not sure. He had fun giving the large group in our area from NJ a hard time. The food was tasty and the atmospehere as fun as always. As MGM was kinda crowded, we made our way by Friendship boat to EPCOT where we caught Illuminations. We snacked our way through the F&W festival and shopped our way through the World and rode Maelstrom and Rio Del Tiempo.
The margaritas in Mexico are tastily fantastic!
After making our way around the world, we staked out our spot for Illuminations to the right of the shops across the lake from the U.S. This was Jean's first Illuminations and we were both teary-eyed by the end. It was as great as I remembered. As we made our way with the masses (like cattle) to the busses, we snapped a few pics of SSE with the fountain in front.
Back at the resort we caught part of the MI episode and crashed into bed.
11/6/2004
We began our day today at breakfast at the Crystal Palace. It was fantabulous being in the MK without any crowds! We met the characters and had a great time altogether at the breakfast. Once done we headed to PoC, Splash Mountain, got a FP for BTM (as it was not working until much later in the day due to "technical difficutlies"), rode Peter Pan (always fun), Winnie the Pooh, Jungle Cruise (great fun with a CM who loved corny jokes as much as I do!), Haunted Mansion, Dumbo (where I got pics of the 20,000 site and left my sunglasses in the green dumbo), Snow White's Scary Adventures (where I realized I left my sunglasses in Dumbo and hurried out of line to get them from the nice lady now getting into the green dumbo - yay for nice people), and Space Mountain again.
Tired and aggravated by the crazy and rude crowds, especialy Stroller Nazi's, we headed back to our room for a break and DTD for dinner at Rainforest. We shopped our way through the Marketplace and returned to our room to prepare for Wishes and Spectromagic. At Mk we used our FP from earlier in the day to ride BTM and staked a spot for Spectromagic. The parade was great but Wishes was . . . . unbelievable! Wishes is my new fave at WDW in regards to night shows! I had tears of joy in my eyes throughout the spectacle. Leaving, the crowds were horrendous but polite, aside from the stroller nazi's. It only took four busses before we were headed back to Pop for night night time and dreamland.
What bugs me a bit,and maybe I will anger some people, are those who use wheelchairs throughout the parks and to use the elevator to get on the bus and then walk like they are perfectly healthy to a seat on the bus - they not only take up room on the bus for their wheelchair but then also take a seat from another peoson who was waiting in line long before them. I'm all about accommodating those in need and those who have physical challenges, but it gets old when waiting in line for hours and then to see a huge grand gathering of poeple with one person who does as above take almost the whole bus- we actualy overheard some people who said they did not even know the person in the wheelchair until they waited in line with them and then that person in the wheelchair invited them to be a "part of thier family" to get on the bus without having to wait. That is just ugly karma and I hope it would not true. Long live honest people! :goodnevil
11/7/2004
Today we headed back to AK where we took in FotLK, TR, KS, KRR, MJT, Dinosaur, Primevil Whirl, Tough to be a Bug, Camp Minnie Mickey, and headed back to Disney Studios for Fantasmic. We rode ToT and RnR again before getting in line for the show. It was awesome, as always, and Jean loved it (she had neer before seen it)! We shopped our way to the busses and made it an early night as we packed up some of our things before our last full day in WDW.
11/8/2004
We woke up to find our last day in WDW sad, but had a great time in Epcot. We first took in Mission Space (both virgin astronauts) and loved it! We were the only two in the shuttle but we survived. . . love the barf bags in the ride. The guy walking out in front of us wasn't doing so well and kept swallowing and not saying anything as he slowly walked out of the exit looking a bit green about the gills.
We got FP for TT and rode Living with the Land and caught Circle of Life at the Land after taking pics of the balloons rumored to be leaving us during the rehab of the Land for Soaring's grand entrance. We shopped at Mousegear after eating breakfast at Electric umbrella and then rode TT. We walked around the World again (where I left my sunglasses on the boat - delaying our leaving Epcot for 20 minutes).
We headed back to MK and rode Buzz LYSRS, BTM, SpM, and then caught SGE! SGE wasn't much different from AE but for less goo and now having a cartooney atmosphere replacing the Alien. After SGE we headed over to the Grand Floridian for our dinner with Cinderella and Prince Charming. It was a nice dinner, but perhaps I am getting too old as the Prince Charming appeared to be very young. It was a fun time and we headed off to the resort for our packing as we leave first thing in the morning.
11/9/2004
Check out and fly home.
A few notes:
Wishes was great, Fantasmic is something you don't want to miss, and the rest is as always was - wonderful! I cannot wait for our next trip in one or two years (I'd prefer to return for the meet in Dec but cannot afford it). Iwill add pics I figure out how to do so. They will follow shortly.
But it was a great trip!
11/4/2004
Head over to meet 26 y/o cousing Jean to go to airport for 6:55 am flight from GR to Philly. It was mighty early (4 am) when we left the house but all good b/c I was pretty excited to return to the World after almost 20 months away. As we boarded our first flight, the flight attendants complimented our luggage as we both decorated ours with flower, thong sandal, and other fun iron-ons to better recognize our boring black luggage. The flight was bit bumpy but we arrived at Philly on time and waited for the flight to MCO. The plane was overbooked so we were delayed from our 10:30 take off to after 11:20 while they enticed people to take a later flight (difficult to do since it was NJ week and many people refused to get off the plane). Eventually we got out of the airports tangled rush hour runway and landed in MCO over 40m late. We met our driver from Quicksilver, Chris, who was great and shared with us a lot of info about the Hurricane recovery efforts throughout the Orlando area. After a quick stop at Publix, we were off the WDW and arrived at Pop with an uneventful drive.
All I can say about Pop is WHOA WOW AWESOME! I love the theming and the fun atmosphere! Our check in was rather short but our walk to room 7134, in the 90's, was so long after a long day of travelling. Our luggage arrived within 30m of us finding our room so we freshened up and headed over the MK for some fun.
Once I saw the Castle I was misty-eyed and knew I was in WDW! It was beeyootiful in all it's glory! Jean teased me and we laughed as we made our way over to Tomorrowland to find SGE with a 45m wait. With FP still not available for SGE we headed over to SpaceM and grabbed a fast pass. While we waited for our FP time, we rode TTA, Haunted Mansion, Philharmagic and CoP. I love "It's a great big beautiful tomorrow". The song was the theme of our trip after that. We rode SpM and caught part of Spectromagic before the tiredness crept in and we headed back to our room to crash.
11/5/2004
Today we started our day with breakfast at AK with Donald, Mickey, Goofy, and Pluto at Restaurantosaurus. We were the first to meet the characters but were seated by the door in the garage (not good seating). The food was pretty tasty but nothing to write home about. It was a fun thing to do but Jean realized that she left her wallet in our rom so we headed back to Pop after our meal. As we were headed to the busses, AK was filling up so we headed to Disney Studios rather than to return to AK.
After Jean secured her wallet and gained back her piece of mind, we first obtained a FP for ToT and rode RnR. Both were awesome! We love them so much and even bought the cheesy pic from ToT. We had a great time chatting with those around us in line and got to meet some fun people from NC and London. After that we headed over to Star Tours. I love that corny pre-ride film showing the furry beings load the transporter!
Ater returning to Earth, we wandered our way over to One Man's Dream, the Animation show, and used FP for Little Mermaid. It was my first time catching LM and the use of the cm's in dark clothing and the black-lit puppets was cool. I got so caught up in the show that I dropped my sunglasses on the floor and could not find them after the theatre cleared. I checked with the store to the right of the exit and was pleased to find someone had turned them in. Yay for nice people! (This was the first of many times I left behind, dropped out of my pocket, or misplaced my sunglasses/glasses case during our trip.)
We headed over to Muppets 3D and then caught the Stars and Motorcars parade as we made our way to Prime Time for our 4:15 PS. Our server was fun, I think his name was Brad, but I'm not sure. He had fun giving the large group in our area from NJ a hard time. The food was tasty and the atmospehere as fun as always. As MGM was kinda crowded, we made our way by Friendship boat to EPCOT where we caught Illuminations. We snacked our way through the F&W festival and shopped our way through the World and rode Maelstrom and Rio Del Tiempo.
The margaritas in Mexico are tastily fantastic!
After making our way around the world, we staked out our spot for Illuminations to the right of the shops across the lake from the U.S. This was Jean's first Illuminations and we were both teary-eyed by the end. It was as great as I remembered. As we made our way with the masses (like cattle) to the busses, we snapped a few pics of SSE with the fountain in front.
Back at the resort we caught part of the MI episode and crashed into bed.
11/6/2004
We began our day today at breakfast at the Crystal Palace. It was fantabulous being in the MK without any crowds! We met the characters and had a great time altogether at the breakfast. Once done we headed to PoC, Splash Mountain, got a FP for BTM (as it was not working until much later in the day due to "technical difficutlies"), rode Peter Pan (always fun), Winnie the Pooh, Jungle Cruise (great fun with a CM who loved corny jokes as much as I do!), Haunted Mansion, Dumbo (where I got pics of the 20,000 site and left my sunglasses in the green dumbo), Snow White's Scary Adventures (where I realized I left my sunglasses in Dumbo and hurried out of line to get them from the nice lady now getting into the green dumbo - yay for nice people), and Space Mountain again.
Tired and aggravated by the crazy and rude crowds, especialy Stroller Nazi's, we headed back to our room for a break and DTD for dinner at Rainforest. We shopped our way through the Marketplace and returned to our room to prepare for Wishes and Spectromagic. At Mk we used our FP from earlier in the day to ride BTM and staked a spot for Spectromagic. The parade was great but Wishes was . . . . unbelievable! Wishes is my new fave at WDW in regards to night shows! I had tears of joy in my eyes throughout the spectacle. Leaving, the crowds were horrendous but polite, aside from the stroller nazi's. It only took four busses before we were headed back to Pop for night night time and dreamland.
What bugs me a bit,and maybe I will anger some people, are those who use wheelchairs throughout the parks and to use the elevator to get on the bus and then walk like they are perfectly healthy to a seat on the bus - they not only take up room on the bus for their wheelchair but then also take a seat from another peoson who was waiting in line long before them. I'm all about accommodating those in need and those who have physical challenges, but it gets old when waiting in line for hours and then to see a huge grand gathering of poeple with one person who does as above take almost the whole bus- we actualy overheard some people who said they did not even know the person in the wheelchair until they waited in line with them and then that person in the wheelchair invited them to be a "part of thier family" to get on the bus without having to wait. That is just ugly karma and I hope it would not true. Long live honest people! :goodnevil
11/7/2004
Today we headed back to AK where we took in FotLK, TR, KS, KRR, MJT, Dinosaur, Primevil Whirl, Tough to be a Bug, Camp Minnie Mickey, and headed back to Disney Studios for Fantasmic. We rode ToT and RnR again before getting in line for the show. It was awesome, as always, and Jean loved it (she had neer before seen it)! We shopped our way to the busses and made it an early night as we packed up some of our things before our last full day in WDW.
11/8/2004
We woke up to find our last day in WDW sad, but had a great time in Epcot. We first took in Mission Space (both virgin astronauts) and loved it! We were the only two in the shuttle but we survived. . . love the barf bags in the ride. The guy walking out in front of us wasn't doing so well and kept swallowing and not saying anything as he slowly walked out of the exit looking a bit green about the gills.
We got FP for TT and rode Living with the Land and caught Circle of Life at the Land after taking pics of the balloons rumored to be leaving us during the rehab of the Land for Soaring's grand entrance. We shopped at Mousegear after eating breakfast at Electric umbrella and then rode TT. We walked around the World again (where I left my sunglasses on the boat - delaying our leaving Epcot for 20 minutes).
We headed back to MK and rode Buzz LYSRS, BTM, SpM, and then caught SGE! SGE wasn't much different from AE but for less goo and now having a cartooney atmosphere replacing the Alien. After SGE we headed over to the Grand Floridian for our dinner with Cinderella and Prince Charming. It was a nice dinner, but perhaps I am getting too old as the Prince Charming appeared to be very young. It was a fun time and we headed off to the resort for our packing as we leave first thing in the morning.
11/9/2004
Check out and fly home.
A few notes:
Wishes was great, Fantasmic is something you don't want to miss, and the rest is as always was - wonderful! I cannot wait for our next trip in one or two years (I'd prefer to return for the meet in Dec but cannot afford it). Iwill add pics I figure out how to do so. They will follow shortly.
