Post-Thanksgiving Trip Report

Leading up to our trip, I became addicted to reading these trip reports, so I thought I'd try my hand at writing one. However, I didn't take notes, so this'll probably be lots of pics & not much text

Arrival
My parents and I flew from PIT to MCO Friday evening, the day after Thanksgiving. We got on the Magical Express bus right around 10pm. This was our first time using DME and I was impressed with how smoothly it went. After a few stops, we arrived at our home for the week - All-Star Music. I had checked in online & requested a room near transportation, but they had assigned us a room in the Country section...the farthest away. We asked if we could get anything closer and the CM made a phone call. Twenty minutes later, my mom was ready to say "Never mind", but the CM was finally able to work something out for us. We would stay one night in the Country section & then move to Calypso for the next 8 nights. By the end of the trip we were SO thankful for this!

We had booked the trip with the free Dining Plan -- another first for us -- so, after dropping our carry-ons in the room, we walked back to the food court to pick up our mugs.

I thought the fountain was pretty:

Since we had landed before 10pm, we had decided to let DME bring our bags to the room. This was probably our biggest regret of the trip. It took multiple phone calls and about 3 hours before our bags were delivered & we were able to collapse into bed.

Epcot tomorrow!

 

[meggo819]

Day 1

In the morning we got ready, packed all our bags to be moved to our new room, and headed to the food court around 8:20am.

As I said, this was our first time using the DDP and my mom was concerned about 2 meals and 1 snack not being enough. So my parents split a bounty platter for breakfast and I had some instant oatmeal that I'd brought with me. Then we grabbed a bus to Epcot and got there around 9:45.

Now, we've been to WDW 5 or 6 times before, but there was still so much of Epcot we'd never seen/done. So I was insisting on going here first so we could see it all! We started at Spaceship Earth, then worked our way clockwise around the park.

The only one of my pics that came out inside of SSE:

My dad rode the tame version of Mission Space with me -- I prefer the spinning version, but he'd never been on it, so we started easy.

After Gran Fiesta, we shared an order of tacos de carne (the tacos were okay, the churritos were delish!) and listened to these guys for a few minutes:

After a quick ride on Maelstrom, we watched Reflections of China & checked out the Tomb Warriors, both firsts for us.

Some Christmas decorations in Germany:

Cute lizards sunbathing on the houses:

 

[meggo819]

More decorations in Italy:

The Ziti Sisters were performing, but they didn't hold our attention long. Not sure if they were supposed to be funny, or a singing group...

We saw the American Adventure show next, which apparently my parents had never seen before. Then on to Japan:

Two more firsts for us -- Impressions de France & British Revolution:

We finished up World Showcase with yet another first, O Canada!, and then headed to the Land to get some dinner at Sunshine Seasons. We shared 2 dinners, both pork chops, that we thoroughly enjoyed. The red velvet whoopie pie was quite delicious too!

We headed to Imagination & Captain EO next, since there were no fastpasses left for Soarin' & we would be back later in the week.

We ended the night at The Seas. We saw Turtle Talk for the first time...so cute! Can't wait to see it again with my nieces.

 

[meggo819]

Day 2

Our new room was in the Calypso building and was a very convenient 60-second walk from the food court! After a quick breakfast, we made our way to Hollywood Studios, arriving around 10 (we're not really morning people!)

Somehow I convinced my 60-year-old parents that we HAD to get fastpasses for Toy Story Mania first thing. We'd never been on it before, so I'm not sure they knew what it was I always feel kinda lost in DHS...I think we took the longest way possible to get there, but we got our fastpasses and then rode the Backlot Tour. I think we enjoyed the AFI exhibit after the tour more than the tour itself.

Next we walked through One Man's Dream and the Magic of Disney Animation -- 2 more firsts for us. I wanted to try the Animation Academy but it looked pretty busy.

We watched a bit of Mulch, Sweat, & Shears' show before heading over to Lights, Motors, Action! My dad & I had seen this last trip, but my mom wanted to see it.

By now, it was after 2 pm and we were starving, so we decided to try Min & Bill's for lunch. My mom had the hot dog on the pretzel bun and my dad & I ordered chicken Caesar sandwiches. Those things were huge! But tasty We all got "milkshakes" for dessert. Now I'd read somewhere that these were the best shakes at WDW, but I didn't see much difference from a Wendy's frosty. Next time, I'd get a cookie and look for a real milkshake elsewhere!

As we finished eating the Pixar parade was starting nearby, so I snapped a few pictures:

We had time to catch the Indiana Jones stunt show before heading back to use our TSM fastpasses.

I was worried that my parents wouldn't enjoy TSM, but my mom was laughing and wondering how I was beating her by so much. We definitely liked this more than the Buzz ride at MK.

We were having quite a productive day...we were able to ride the Great Movie Ride, and see Muppet Vision 3D & Beauty and the Beast (didn't take many pics at any of these), before catching the first Fantasmic show (where my pics didn't really come out).

 

[meggo819]

Next we headed back over to check out the Osborne lights (another first for us). I was impressed, even if my mom was reminded of Clark Griswold's house...

By now, it was Extra Magic Hours. We decided to do one more thing my mom would enjoy, before my dad & I took in the thrill rides.

My mom held our bags while we rode Star Tours twice. Sadly, it was almost exactly the same both times. Next we headed back to Tower of Terror and Rock'n'Roller Coaster. My mom decided to take all our stuff and head back to the resort. We used the single riders line at RNR, but I'm not sure it actually saved us any time!

 

[meggo819]

Day 3

Since it was Monday, we were hoping the Thanksgiving crowds would be clearing out, so we headed to the Magic Kingdom for the first time. We started at Space Mountain since it was closed during our last trip. We grabbed some fastpasses for later and got in line. We discussed later that this ride seems a lot rougher than we remember...or maybe we're all just getting old?

We then rode Carousel of Progress & the People mover before returning to use our fastpasses at Space Mountain.

We made our way to the Storybook Circus area via the back pathway. We took a round trip ride on the train before briefly checking out the area.

We grabbed some fastpasses for Under the Sea, saw Mickey's Philharmagic, and then headed to New Fantasyland.

Next up was a relaxing ride on the Liberty Square Riverboat.

Some people got pretty excited about the deer...we were laughing at how big the fake deer (to the left) was compared to actual deer.

 

[meggo819]

We took a small detour to Sleepy Hollow so I could get a waffle w/ fruit & nutella...best thing I ate all week! So delicious! I think I took this picture from there.

Then we headed back to ride Haunted Mansion & see the Hall of Presidents.

We got stopped right at the beginning of the ride & this was the only thing in view to photograph:

We stopped to see the Country Bear Jamboree and then grabbed fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain. We rode Pirates & Splash Mountain while waiting for our return time. I snapped some more pics when we got stopped on Splash Mountain:

We had dinner at Peco Bill's...my mom & I shared a pulled pork sandwich & I think my dad had a burger. We ended up watching the Electrical Parade right across the path from the restaurant.

We headed toward the front of the castle to catch Celebrate the Magic & Wishes.

It was EMH, but we'd had 3 long days, so we just rode Its a Small World & then head back to the resort.

 

[meggo819]

Day 4

Our first of 2 days at Universal Orlando...if you're not a fan, skip the next few posts

We had never been to Universal before and I really wanted to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, so we bought 2-day/2-park passses w/ transportation thru a travel agency. I would definitely recommend this...saved us from renting a car. We caught a Mears shuttle at our hotel around 8:30, made one stop at Sea World, and arrived at Universal before 10 am.

First stop was Rip Ride Rocket...this could've been a great coaster, but it was just too rough. We didn't even try to get my mom to go on this one.

We headed to Twister next and I was able to convince my mom that this wasn't a ride...I think she enjoyed it, but I was a little underwhelmed.

My dad & I rode Revenge of the Mummy & then convinced my mom she'd like it...we were right. We all really enjoyed this one. My only complaint was how dark the queue was! There were so few people waiting that you literally walked all the way to the platform, but we had to walk slowly so we could see where we were going.

We were sad we never got to ride the Jaws ride...

This ride would've been completely lame, if it weren't for this guy:

My dad & I got stuck on MIB right before the unloading platform & had to be "evacuated". We were glad we got to experience the ride, didn't have to wait too long to get off, and we got an Express pass out of it! That said, this ride was not nearly as good as Toy Story Mania or Buzz Lightyear. I did enjoy the theming though.

We stopped at some tables near the Animal Actors show and ate some snacks that we'd bought at our hotel that morning. We figured since we had so many extra DDP credits, it would be silly to buy food at Universal. Next we rode ET which we all thought was cute:

After a walk thru the Lucy tribute, we headed over to Islands of Adventure around 2:15 pm.

 

[meggo819]

The wait times were really short here too, so we figured we go on some of the smaller rides:

We also rode Trolley ride, which was a mistake because we ended up waiting much longer than the posted time.

Now on to the reason for coming...Harry Potter! We rode all 3 rides (including both sides of Dragon Challenge) with short waits.

The Monster Book of Monsters started growling just as I was taking this pic...cracked us up:

I took a pic of this sign instead of the other one...it's the only thing that bothered me about WWoHP. All the details are true to the books and movies, but then there's "Please Respect the Spell Limits". What does that even mean?

We walked through Jurassic Park & Toon Lagoon, but we weren't in the mood for any water rides. We were getting tired anyway, so we called Mears and were able to move up our pick-up time. The ride back to the resort took much longer, with many stops at other resorts, but I fell asleep so wasn't bothered too much.