My Trip Report 9/25-10/4 with Photos!

DisneyDreamer08 · Oct 6, 2009

monkeysammich said:
... Pumpkin Cheesecake? That sounds delightful. The public demands to know how it was!

It was delicious! It tasted like a really creamy pumpkin pie. They said that and the granny smith sorbet were specials for the season so I'm not sure how long they will be serving them.

DisneyDreamer08 · Oct 6, 2009

Heatherbell said:
That pic you have at the top of Splash Mountain is so cool. Great trip report! You guys are cute.

Thanks! Yeah, my husband always takes the on ride action photos. I guess he's afraid I'll drop the camera or something. We took a few more later on in the week when we were on Everest. We thought it was cool that you could see Epcot and the ToT from there

DecWDW · Oct 6, 2009

That's Chip trying to put the make on you! lol Just remember his nose looks like a chocolate "chip"! Great TR and I'm eagerly looking forward to more! We stayed at AKL last year, it was great!

popsicletrees · Oct 6, 2009

I'm really enjoying your TR and all of the pictures! The granny smith apple sorbet looked so good. Oh, and what a great wedding present! Looking forward to reading more!

eroyee · Oct 6, 2009

Great trip report and really good pics despite the camera problems. You guys are such a cute couple.......

sweetpee_1993 · Oct 6, 2009

Your trip report is top-notch! I'm soooo enjoying the read and eagerly awaiting the next installment!

Thanks for sharing all your wonderful pics!:wave:

DisneyDreamer08 · Oct 7, 2009

DecWDW said:
That's Chip trying to put the make on you! lol Just remember his nose looks like a chocolate "chip"! Great TR and I'm eagerly looking forward to more! We stayed at AKL last year, it was great!

Ah, great tip, thank you!!!

DisneyDreamer08 · Oct 7, 2009

Hi again! Thank you for all the positive comments so far!!!
Continuing on...

Day 5- 9/29 Epcot

The plan for this day was the spend the day at Epcot. Epcot is both Nick and I's least favorite park overall, however, there are many things we like to do there. We were hoping to spend the morning in Future World and the afternoon/evening in the World Showcase.

As we arrived down at the bus stop, the bus for Epcot was there waiting. Because of that, we got to Epcot a little earlier than planned- around 8:20. I didn't mind though, I'd much rather be early than late! I should also quickly mention that bus service from AKL was exceptional! We never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus (except for when we went to Downtown Disney). Also, there was a young man who worked down at the bus stop in the mornings. He had games to play with the kids and always kept them well entertained. One day he spent about 10 minutes with a group of 3 little girls who were teaching him some Hannah Montana dance. It was so sweet!

Anyways, at 8:45 we made our way through the turnstiles towards the fountain.

About 5 minutes before opening, some characters came out to greet the crowd.

Since we were at the front of the rope, I got a hug from Minnie.

After experiencing the opening shows at the other 3 theme parks, Epcots is LAME-O!!! At rope drop, a few Soarin' cast members walked us to our first ride of the day. When we entered the building, Nick and I were the 2nd family in line.

I'm not really sure what was going on, but the cast members inside were not happy. They kept walking back and forth to each other, whispering, all with unhappy looks on their faces. One CM named Tammy seemed particularly upset about something. We waited in line for a while and then they ushered us to our rows. We waited in line there for several more minutes. At one point, I looked at my watch and it was 9:20 and we still weren't on the ride.

So finally, we were able to ride and of course Soarin' was great. While Soarin' is my favorite ride at Epcot, its not in my top 10 favorite wdw rides. Still a good one though.

After getting off Saorin', there really wasn't anything else to do in The Land. Living With The Land was closed for refurb, and we chose not to see the Circle of Life film since we saw it last year. So we exited the Land and headed off to The Seas.

There was no line yet for Nemo so we walked right on. As we exited a Turtle Talk With Crush was beginning in about 3 minutes so we went there. I love this show! The person doing Crush's voice was especially funny that day. He also had an easy day as the kids questions were, Do you have a shell? Can you swim? etc. It was great though.

We then spend the next hour or so exploring the pavilion. We checked out all the fish, the dolphins, manatees, etc. I think Nick could have spent the whole day there.

We found Nemo!

Dory!

This guy was cool-

Hidden Mickey!

More coming...

DisneyDreamer08 · Oct 7, 2009

When we left the Seas we went over to Spaceship Earth. There was about a 15 minute wait. When we got almost to the end, our omnimover stopped, I'm guessing to load someone in a wheelchair. We were sitting in the same place for the longest time, so I took a picture of our view.

Here are some shots of our ending video

After Spaceship Earth, we were getting hungry for lunch. First, we decided to go get a fast pass for Test Track. We were over there sometime between 11 and 11:30 and the posted wait time was 60 minutes. The return fast pass time wasn't until 3pm. We weren't sure if we would still be in Future World at 3, so we didn't end up getting a fast pass.

We went back over to The Land to eat at Sunshine Seasons.

Fountain on the way...

At Sunshine Seasons

We had never been there before and we were really impressed with the variety. While the fresh made sandwiches and potato salad looked delicious, we both ended up at the Asian Noodle section. I had sweet and sour chicken with noodles and white rice, and Nick had ginger beef with white rice and broccoli. We then got into the dessert line which was wicked long. We waited there with our food for awhile- so a tip to anyone who eats there- get your dessert first if you have a hot food item!! For dessert, I chose apple flan and Nick chose a croissant. All of our food was delicious and we would most definitely eat here again! If you're on the dining plan it is especially worth it!

After lunch, we noticed the wait time for Soarin' said 10 minutes so we figured what the heck, and rode again.

We then went over to the Imagination pavilion and started with the Figment ride. We walked right on. The ride was cute, as usual, although I wish they wouldn't spray you with skunk smell!
We then went to Honey I Shrunk the Audience. That "pre-show" as the CMs called it was so boring. It was basically a 10 minute Kodak commercial. After a while no one was even watching. We both like HISTA and there must have been a lot of first timers there because everyone screamed during the mice part.

We then made our way over to Ellen's Energy Adventure. Neither of us have seen this before and when we walked in, the pre-show video was already playing. We were confused because we didn't know if the attraction was in progress and if we should come back later. We stayed though and I don't think we missed too much. The ride portion of the attraction was interesting although you can tell the dinosaur section was recycled from another ride. The Ellen AA was kind of terrible also. We were glad we did it though.

As we were leaving Ellen, another couple offered us some fast passes for Soarin' that they weren't going to use. Once again we figured, why not, and accepted them. So off we went to ride Soarin' again!

After Soarin', we went over to Innoventions to the Visa card meet and greet. Nick and I did this last year and it was so much fun. Last year we met Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy. We spend a lot of time in there getting group pictures, as well as individual pictures with each character. They made us do all kinds of silly poses and the pictures came out great.

When we got there, the line was super long. I got in line and Nick went to play the nearby video games. Total we probably waited about a half hour. When we got in there, it was Minnie and Goofy. After greeting the characters, the photopass lady took 1 picture with my camera and 2 with hers. She then said ok, thanks for coming. So we just left as we felt we were being rushed. We were literally in there for about 30 seconds so it was a little disappointing.

We were just about done with future world and it was almost 3pm. So as it turns out, our Test Track fast passes would have been perfect. We walked back over to Test Track and the standby line said 30 minutes. We were all set to get in the line but then we saw the single rider line said 5 minutes. Since Test Track isn't one of our favorites, we didn't mind riding separately, so we got in the single rider line. We skipped the video section and went right to the loading section so that was good.

The second we got there, there was a car with an empty spot in the front, and one in the back. For some reason though, only Nick was asked to board and I was told to wait for the next one. So that car took off with an empty seat. Weird. I got in the next car and at the end, we were glad we chose the shorter line. We were happy with only riding once and we were ready to continue on to the World Showcase.

I will continue on later with the World Showcases along with our Illuminations fiasco...

Ariel484 · Oct 7, 2009

That's great that your camera seems to be holding up better! I love your fall decoration shots at MK...and your husband has inspired me to try some on-ride photos! Love those!

DisneyPrincess5 · Oct 7, 2009

Great TR and pictures! Thanks for sharing it with us!

DisneyDreamer08 · Oct 7, 2009

Ariel484 said:
That's great that your camera seems to be holding up better! I love your fall decoration shots at MK...and your husband has inspired me to try some on-ride photos! Love those!

Yes, the battery on my camera did better after the first few days. We found that the trick was to unplug it from the charger as soon as the light turned green. If we kept it plugged in over night, for some reason the battery wouldn't last all day. Not sure why.

DisneyDreamer08 · Oct 7, 2009

Continuing on with the World Showcase...

Because most of Future World is indoors, when we started walking towards the World Showcase, we couldn't believe how hot it was that day. I think the high that day was 93 or something absurd like that.

So as we entered the WS, we took a left towards Mexico and immediately bolted towards the indoor section of the pavilion. We looked around at the merchandise a little and hopped aboard the Gran Fiesta Tour.

On the way out, we bumped into this amigo

And yes, I know I did the wrong arm but my other arm was back behind Donald and I couldn't get it out fast enough. haha

We then went next door to Norway and made a beeline to the AC comforts of Maelstrom. That morning at the bus stop, someone had left 2 special fastpasses. Each was good for up to 5 people and you could use it on Mission Space, Living with the Land, or Maelstrom. Obviously LwtL was closed, and we did MS last time and thought it was really boring, so we decided to use one on Maelstrom. There was a 10 minute wait posted and there was a bit of a line so it worked out pretty good.

After browsing through some of the shops, we continued on to China. We saw Mulan and just as we were approaching her, a CM told us she was leaving to take a break and would be back in about a half hour. So, we took our time looking through all the stores, and about 20 minutes later went back out to her spot. A few minutes after we got there, another family came up to wait in line also. When the kids saw Mulan come out, they got so excited and immediately ran up to hug her. Mulan of course did not know that the kids had cut in front of us so she starting talking and posing for pictures with them. The mom kept apologizing and telling the kids to wait their turns but I didn't care at all. They were so adorable and they were just kids after all. Anyways, here is me with Mulan-

We then continued on to Germany where I was very excited to see the new Snow White meet and greet (as my husband reminded me all week, I really am still a kid at heart). We waited in line for about 10 minutes. Snow White asked me if I met my Prince near the wishing well. I said no and she said that's where she met her Prince. It was cute. I always feel bad when the characters talk to me though because I know there are a bunch of kids still waiting in line.

I love the little train in Germany. I like this shot because you can see the little bride and groom in front of the church.

Nick's attempt at being artsy...

We walked around the WS a little more, stopping a lot to go inside the ACed shops. I didn't really take a whole lot of pictures because the place was so packed in was hard to get good shots without tons of people in the way. We knew we would be back the next day so we thought we would try again then. Here are two that came out ok

That night, we had an ADR at the Rose and Crown. We were hoping to sit outside to view Illuminations. More on that coming up in a bit...

HollyBelle · Oct 7, 2009

Love me some Chip and Dale! I'm glad to see that they were one of your favorite meet and greets of the entire trip. Also, I really like all of your character style tank tops. I can never seem to find tanks... just t shirts. Can't wait for more!

DisneyDreamer08 · Oct 7, 2009

So back when my 90 day window first opened up, one of the very first ADRs I made was at the Rose and Crown. I had read in many different places that their outdoor seating was one of the best spots to enjoy Illuminations. I had tried to make an ADR for 7:30pm but all that was available at the time was a 6:55 or an 8:30. I thought that if we took the 8:30, all the outdoor tables would be filled by then so I chose the 6:55. I even asked the CM on the phone what her opinion was in regards to viewing Illuminations and she too said to go with the 6:55.

We decided to check in a little early, at about 6:30, since we wanted to request to sit outside. We told the hostess we were in no hurry and we would wait longer if necessary. About 15 minutes later our buzzer went off and we were seated outside.

For those of you who have been to the Rose and Crown, you know that their are 2 tiers of tables. The lower tier is all round tables, and the upper tier is square tables. We were seated at the upper tier.

Our server, Michael, came over and gave us the menus and took our drink order. When he came back with our drinks, we told him that we were going to stay until Illuminations so he could take his time with us. We were also planning on ordering some appetizers even though we were on the meal plan, just to take up time. Michael told us that unfortunately, the restaurant had a 2 hour time limit on all tables and that since we were seated at 6:45, that at 8:45 we would be asked to leave. I explained to him that I made this reservation specifically to view Illuminations and that through all my Disney research I never came across anything in regards to a time limit. He apologized and said that he didn't mind at all if we stayed, but that the managers of the restaurant would ask us to leave. He also told us that the R&C had a small standing room only section that we could watch Illuminations from but we could see it from where we were seated and it was small, and didn't have the best view.

Michael then left to let us look at the menu and I couldn't help it, I started to cry. I had been planning this trip, and this specific night, for so long that I couldn't believe it was all falling apart. And also, this was the only reason I even chose to eat at the R&C. Obviously there are much more unique choices in the WS. Nick suggested that we leave and eat somewhere else but because of free dining, I knew we wouldn't be able to get in anywhere else. We decided to just eat there, and then leave and hope we got lucky and found an ok spot to view the show.

I was still a little sad but Nick reminded me that a bad day in Disney beats a good day anywhere else. So I sucked it up and tried to enjoy our dinner.

Nick ordered bangers and mash and he absolutely loved it. He said it was one of his favorite meals of the trip. I ordered the Sunday Roast. It came with a very large helping of roast, a large scoop of mashed potatoes, several roasted potatoes, some sort of roll, and 2 teeny tiny pieces of brocolini. It was good, although very heavy and I wish I had more veggies. It was all very tasty though.

For dessert, Nick ordered the chocolate scotch cake, which he liked, and I ordered the sticky toffee pudding which was also very good.

Throughout the meal, we noticed that a section of round tables on the tier below us were completely empty. No one was seated at them the entire time. I went out to the hostess stand and asked if there was some sort of list to be seated there for the show. She told me that section was currently closed and that no waiter was available for that section (why they closed an outdoor section at night is beyond me). She told me that she could not seat me there but that if we sat there on our own, she technically couldn't ask us to leave.

I relayed the message to Nick and told him we should move down there. He wanted to mention it to Michael just to make sure it was really ok. Michael said that he too noticed the section was closed and that he would be more than happy to continue serving us down there for the rest of the evening.

So, Nick and I moved down to one of those tables and we had a PERFECT view of the lagoon. We even ordered 2 mixed drinks even though neither of us are big drinkers. And of course, we left Michael a good tip for helping us out.

Just when we thought we were going to have a nice relaxing end to our evening, two girls came down and sat at the table next to us. I would say they were 21 or 22 years old, they both had accents, and from the way they were talking, I think they were cast members in the UK pavilion. They immediately got on their cell phones and told whoever they were talking to where they were. Within 5 minutes our quiet little area was literally jammed packed with people. One girl was sitting so close to me she was bumping me the whole time I was trying to take pictures. They continued to talk loudly throughout the entire show. Never the less, I got some pretty good shots-

We still very much enjoyed the show, it just wasn't the perfect evening I had hoped for. Oh well.

To make matters worse, the bus ride home was a nightmare. As usual, we were crammed into the bus like clowns in Volkswagen. It seems so unsafe the way they do things. When we all boarded, the bus driver said something about the AC but it was so loud and we couldn't really hear him. It must have been broken though because it was so unbelievably hot in there and we were literally all inches away from each other. At one point, this poor little baby started screaming. And not just a whiny, tired scream. You could tell something was really wrong. A few minutes later I glanced back and the parents had taken all the babys clothes off and he was just in his diaper (still screaming). A few minutes later another baby started screaming as well. It was a really looong bus ride back to AKL. The driver even drove with the door open to get some air in there. Again, seems really safe, right?

Our plan for the next day was to sleep in a little and go back to WS when they opened at 11. I'll try to finish up that day a little later. The day after that we had tickets to MNSSHP which turned out to be the most stressful night of our trip...

More later! Thanks again for reading!

DisneyDreamer08 · Oct 7, 2009

Day 6- 9/30 Epcot/Downtown

After four days of getting up early and being at the parks from open to close, we decided to take it easy this day. We had 1:30 lunch reservations at Akershus (thats right, I made Nick go to a Princess Lunch). So, we decided to sleep in and arrive at Epcot by the time World Showcase opened at 11. I was hoping it wouldn't be as crowded then and I could get some better pictures.

We went down to the Mara at AKL around 10 to get some breakfast. I had a Mickey Waffle with sausage and Nick had eggs with bacon and homefries. We couldn't believe how packed the Mara was. I thought we would be the only ones not in a park yet by 10am.

We got to Epcot right at 11 and before going over to the WS, we stopped at Club Cool since we had missed it the day before. We tried all the drinks, saving Beverly for last. Neither of us have tried it before but I had heard that it was terrible. I made Nick try it first and he took a sip, didn't make a face at all, and said it tasted like water. I was suspicious but tried it too and sure enough, it did taste like water (I guess the syrup was out). We went to another station and tried again. This time we got the true Beverly and sure enough, it was disgusting.

When we entered the WS, we turned right this time and started with Canada. We went into their gift shop where we saw a sign about finding stuffed animals they had hidden. For some reason, I thought it would be fun to search for them (my inner child again I guess). We finally found one and I excitedly brought it to the register. I thought I would get some cool little prize but instead, I got this little certificate that the CM wrote my name on. Haha, I'm a dork.

From there, we just continued walking taking various pictures. It was defintely less crowded than the night before but there were still a lot people for only being open a half hour.

When we got to Japan, we saw a kiosk selling shave ice. When we were on our honeymoon in Hawaii, shave us was our obsession. Nick decided to try one and said it was close, but not quite as good as Hawaii's version.

DisneyDreamer08 · Oct 7, 2009

Continuing on with our tour of the World Showcase

It was then time to head over to Akershus for lunch. On the way in, we stopped at the Belle meet and greet.

We were seated and the hostess gave us our menus. The waiter then came over to take our orders. We both ended up choosing Kjottkaker- basically meatballs in a delicious gravy. It came with mashed potatoes and asparagus.

After our order was taken, we were told to help ourselves to the salad bar. I mentioned something to the server about giving us enough time. He thought we meant that if the princesses came while we were up, that they would come back later. What I really meant though was that based on other experiences through the week, it seems Disney tries to rush you in and out of restaurants as quickly as possible.

So we went up and filled our plates with delicious salads, veggies, rolls, etc. And sure enough, we had only taken a few bites and our meals were brought out. We both really enjoyed our lunch and the portion size was perfect. The waiter cleared our plates and brought out the desserts literally about 30 seconds later. It consisted of chocolate cake, rice cream and an apple tart. I took a picture because the apple tart was in the shape of Mickey.

So were pretty much completely done with our rushed meals and still no princesses. Finally, they started entering our room.

Aurora was first, followed by Cinderella

Next was Snow White who once again asked me if I met my Prince near the wishing well.

Last was Ariel, in her ball gown. She was my favorite that day. She played her character really well.

Although our experience there was quick, the food was excellent and the restaurant is really nice inside. I would recommend it to anyone- even if you don't have little girls!

I will finish up the rest of our day shortly!

monkeysammich · Oct 7, 2009

Its good to know that you enjoyed the princess lunch. We booked it for our trip for my 2 year old daughter...

DisneyDreamer08 · Oct 7, 2009

HollyBelle said:
Love me some Chip and Dale! I'm glad to see that they were one of your favorite meet and greets of the entire trip. Also, I really like all of your character style tank tops. I can never seem to find tanks... just t shirts. Can't wait for more!

thanks! Yeah, I started looking for tank tops months in advance because I figured it would be really hot. I found in a few in the Disney Store at the mall but most I ordered online. About a month before we left the Disney Shopping website was having a sale on design-your-own attire. So I purchased a few then also

DisneyDreamer08 · Oct 7, 2009

monkeysammich said:
Its good to know that you enjoyed the princess lunch. We booked it for our trip for my 2 year old daughter...

She will love it!! The princesses were all super friendly. There was a table next to us with a little girl who was probably about 4. Each princess got down on the ground at her level and spent quite a bit of time talking with her (the little girl was very chatty!)

Maybe with a little one you will like getting out quickly but if you do want to take your time, maybe tell the server you are not ready to order, go up to the salad bar, and then put your order in after you are finished with the appetizers. I actually wish we did that- I felt like we ate so fast!

Have fun!!!

My Trip Report 9/25-10/4 with Photos!

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