Pre, During, and Post Trip Report - Spring Break 2012

Is 75 days out too early for my pre-trip report to begin? I hope not. I welcome suggestions and comments. The trip is March 31-April 6, 2012. As always, smack dab in the peak season of the week before Easter. See below for why our family life is based on school calendars.

For those that might have missed our previous pre-, during, and post- Trip Reports from the past...we are excessive planners and have almost never had a trip go according to plan. But that is usually because we have planned so much, that in the back of our minds are three other back-up plans that once were the plan and....well, you get the idea.

So, background on the clan... there are three of us. Myself (almost 40), DW, and DD (8). I am a high school music teacher, my wife is also a teacher and occasional bar tender, and my daughter is a little kid (what more need you know?). We are DVC members and have many trips under our belts (I think this is #24 for me). Hey, look, here we are this past summer:

Most trips we are gung-ho, up at 6am and touring non-stop until late afternoon, then a quick nap, and back to the parks until 9pm then off to bed. This trip, we are trying a different approach. Now that DD is a bit older and can adjust sleep habits as needed, we are going to be the EMH warriors this time.

I'm sure that the drive down is of little consequence to most of you, but since I know quite a few fellow I95 (dare I say) enthusiasts, here it is: we will get out of home (about 40 minutes north of Baltimore, toward Hanover PA) around 4pm on March 30th. Since that will be dangerous rush hour time, we will avoid DC like the plague and instead take route 301 through most of MD and Virginia until Richmond, where, after a dinner break, we will meet up with our dark mistress I95 at about, say 8:30pm. We then will drive overnight, switching off driving and sleeping with usually an hour at a rest stop somewhere for everyone to get actual sleep. So, arrival is posted for 10:22am. Yes, that's over-planning at it's finest. Of course, if a few things fall the right way and we miss some traffic and don't eat for too long, ideal ETA is 8am.

Alright, next up will be Day 1 and Day 2 plans.

 

[brifraz]

Day 3 Wrap-Up

Before AK time, we decided a brief pool visit followed by lunch would be a good idea, so that's what we did! Then, we finally got rolling into Animal Kingdom right around 2pm. First order of business was to get a Fastpass for something...so, given the 90 degree heat, we decided on Kali River Rapids (FP was for 6:20). Then over to Finding Nemo, the Musical for the 3pm show. Always a winner with us and to our great delight the best Crush actor was on stage (he has been Crush for almost all of the 8 or so times we have seen the show, incredible voice).

After Nemo, there was some tiredness, so we met wandered over to the Dawa Bar and everybody had a drink (well, DD had some Mio water, while we had beers). From there, we watched the parade roll by and then went to the 4:45pm Flights of Wonder show. Enjoyable as always. After the show, it was over to the Flame Tree Barbeque for dinner. If you haven't wandered the area behind to eat, it's worth it - very peaceful (and to our shock, almost empty at 5pm!!). DD even had time to try to find a prince.

After dinner we met the Winnie the Pooh characters at the old boat landing (yes, I remember and miss those boats - always enjoyed to relaxing boat ride) and then went out on our safari. We had never done an evening safari and were happy to see both the cheetahs and the lions out and about. Then we did our Kali River Rapids ride and I'll bet you can't guess who was facing backward on the big waterfall. Yes, yours truly was fully drenched. Both girls got pretty wet as well, but I was quite the portrait.

After that, we headed to Dinoland. Many around here like to bash the theme of this area, but we get a kick out of it. Perhaps we have some affinity for old fashioned American carnival, but we tend to get a good laugh out of the shops and decorations. Similarly, Primeval Whirl gets a bad rap, but I know one 8yr old who loves it. So, we did it twice for her - once for each parent.

Then we made a bee line over to Camp Minnie Mickey (an area that we DO have some issues with) and met with more characters. Brer Rabbit, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald. After that is was 8pm and we exited with the masses. Back to our room by 9pm and asleep in seconds!

 

[brifraz]

Day 4 - First Half

So, we begin the Day 4 in review with EMH at Magic Kingdom. That meant a 6am wake-up call and a last minute decision to drive over and ride the early monorail. Or course, that never works out as the monorails didn't start running until almost 6:45am. Oh well, no rope drop for us this time!

No worries, because at 7:05am when we arrived, the characters were just coming out on main street, so we got to visit Pinocchio, Daisy, and frontier Donald. Since NO people were visiting Donald, we had a little fun with him!

Then to Peter Pan and the Carousel before heading back to Main Street for some breakfast from the Bakery. Mmmm.... Then we decided to try our hands at the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game, so we went to the Fire Station to get our cards. After our training, we noticed the barbershop was empty. Well, we had haircuts scheduled for the girls at 10:30am, but with no wait at 8am, we went ahead in. This was a big deal as both girls got 8 inches of hair cut off and will be donating it.

Post haircut, we completed the Frontierland SOMK adventure and also met some folks with whom we traded the cards. This could definitely become an addiction for DD who was religious in her pursuit of the transportation cards a few years ago. We took a nice slow ride on the Liberty Belle and got some nice construction pictures (which will be posted on the rumors page tomorrow). Then a visit to Tom Sawyer island for some exploration time as well as a nice father-daughter game of checkers.

We then headed back to our room for some lunch and down time before taking our DD to the Wonderland Tea at Grand Floridian. And that is where I leave you until I update again!

 

[brifraz]

Day 4 - Part Deux

When last we spoke (just a little above here) we were getting ready to head to the Wonderland Tea at Grand Floridian for our daughter. She put on her nice homemade "pretty, but not a specific princess" dress for the occasion. And she loved it. She took her small point and shoot camera and we can't access those pictures while we are here, but it looks like it was a blast. Meanwhile DW and I enjoyed a relaxing meal at the Gasparilla Grill and then relaxed in and around the GF.

We then headed back to the room for an all-to-brief afternoon nap. Definitely one of those hours that seemed like seconds! Post nap, we got ourselves back together and headed for a late night at Epcot. One of the most important portions of this trip was making sure we did a bunch of Kim Possible missions. Yes, you can put me securely in the Keep KP in Epcot camp. Why? Well, the big argument for Perry (who our family is fully addicted to, this is no slight to P&F which is our favorite family show) is that he is more 'topical' and popular. I just don't know that I want that attraction to be topical and insanely popular - you already have way TOO many people doing the missions, why add the component of the most popular kids show on TV? Also, our DD never saw KP on it's original run on TV, she was introduced to it by the missions at Epcot and we now own 2 seasons on DVD. Sorry for the diversion - off of soapbox and back to the blog.

Well, we did the Germany, Norway, and Mexico missions and squeezed a ride on Maelstrom and some food in there as well. During the Mexico mission, we DD and I had a little fun while DW visited the Cava de Tequila to be an adult for a couple minutes!

Then, as the crowds descended on the lagoon, we went back over to Future World and visited Club Cool, watched the Circle of Life, and went on Living with the Land - interesting to ride that at night and also after we had done the tour two days ago, puts a different spin on things. Then (against our better judgement) we went to see Captain EO. Couldn't imagine a more succinct way to capture all that was wrong with the 80s. Bad fashion, bad hair, a sad fascination with 'cute' furry things, total excess of sets, dance, and music.... Well, we saw it and can say we did - time to move on. To this:

Then we walked over to Norway for some food and finished the night with a ride on Mission:Space - Green Team. All buttons were pushed properly and to our surprise we landed safely on Mars. (OK, maybe not so much surprise) Then back to the room for some much needed sleep!

 

[brifraz]

Day 5 - Good Morning, Yeti!

So, we arrive at Day 5 - usually about the time that we all are getting so tired that people get cranky and stuff happens. Not so much, though, today. Another good day! Extra Magic Morning at Animal Kingdom meant a 6am wake up and just 15 minutes to prep and get driving. And so it was that we arrived at AK around 6:25am and were the 4th car in the lot. Following the slow moving rope, we found ourselves on the very first train for Expedition Everest. Following that ride, I met up with our friends from home and chatted while the girls rode a second time (my stomach is a one coaster an hour fellow). They were quite proud of two rides before 7:30am.

Then, for the first time, DD decided she was ready for Countdown to Extinction!, err....Dinosaur! To quote her "Ride was fun, hated the dinosaurs and the meteors." What else is there to the ride you might ask? Well, again to summarize her comments - the ride car and motion is lots of fun, she just doesn't like the carnotaur or the impending meteor shower. This is right after two rides with a yeti chasing her?? Anyway, that earned her another ride on Primeval Whirl, so all three of us did it this time and DD also requested a silly dinosaur pose to show her feelings about the aforementioned ride.

We then grabbed breakfast at Pizzafari and following a few animal encounters (the wallaby was out and about) we left Animal Kingdom, yes by 9:30am. So, back at the hotel, we had some quality pool time - although (another soap box moment), I really can't stand people who put their towels on chairs at 7am, but don't actually come to the pool until noon or later - in our experience at OKW there have never been enough people in the pool and lounging to warrant every single chair being in use and yet they always are. So, after a dip, we were back in the room with Wolfgang Puck leftovers for a light lunch and then a nap.

Around 1:15pm it was time to head to Atlantic Dance Hall at the Boardwalk for Welcome Home Wednesday (the DVC member party). Lots of fun for all and nice shopping bag for our swag - seems they have changed over from the usual baseball hats which is fine with us as we aren't a really big baseball hat family.

From there, we headed to Studios for dinner and EMH, but that will be for the next update as I need some sleep!

 

[brifraz]

And the rest of Day 5

Subtitled - sorry, no pictures.

So evening and EMH at Hollywood Studios. We arrived in the park right around 3:20pm and knew that we only had an hour before our 50s Prime Time dinner reservations. First, picked up an FP for Tower of Terror for later and then watched one of my personal favorites, MuppetVision. Always a good laugh and fun time, despite some of the effects have now become extinct ('burn rubber' and most of the final fireworks). It was nice to see that the Swedish Chef was in full animatronicness. We then had our dinner at 50s and as is always the case the experience depends entirely on the staff. Well, we had a great waitress and a very good time!

After dinner, it was getting close to 5pm, so we did the Great Movie Ride. It was the first time we have gotten the Western scene for our driver swap instead of the Gangsters. Quite happy with that! Then we did almost half of One Man's Dream. DD was making sure to read EVERYTHING in the attraction, which was quite nice, but takes quite a bit of time. So, we left right around 1938 in the life story. Went to the Beauty and the Beast show which is always entertaining. Then used our Tower of Terror FPs and had a great ride. Always fun to have an excited car full of screamers!

Then we returned to One Man's Dream and finished the walk through and watched the movie. Then to the Animation Not-tour. Enjoyed the film and walk through exhibits, then got our Animator time and all drew our own Sorcerer Mickey's! At that point it was after 10pm, so for EMH we crossed the park (getting lots of silly pictures along the way, but no posting right now - sorry!) and did Star Tours - for those in the know we got Stormtroopers, Hoth, Leia, and Coruscant. Back across the park for Voyage of the Little Mermaid at 10:45. After Ariel was happily turned human we grabbed some snacks and sit and listed to Mulch, Sweat, and Shears while we snacked and then headed out.

I will try to get Day 6 posted either later tonight or tomorrow morning and Day 7 will be up when we are back up north, so there might be a bit of a delay getting you all that info - but, I'll try to get it up sooner than later!

 

[fractal]

Wow!

2 rides on EE, Dinosaur, Prime-Evil Whirl, breakfast and back to the resort by 9:30.

Talk about efficient!

That's cool about the haircut. I didn't know you could donate your hair.

 

[MouseDreaming]

Loving the trip report. I'm also not feeling so "scared" about a possible trip the week before Easter next year. Can't wait for the rest!

 

[brifraz]

Day 6 Recap

Again, sorry, no pictures. There will be a full picture album up on Picasa in a few days, but the camera to computer connection is packed and takes too long on the laptop anyway.

So, yesterday...up early and headed to Magic Kingdom at 6:20am with the bus entirely to ourselves. At 7am park opening, we head for Tomorrowland. Space Mountain first thing and while the girls ride it, I get FPs for them to ride again later and take a quick tour on the TTA Peoplemover. There will be some of those early morning pics at some point. I do so enjoy seeing pre-sunrise castle and space mountain. We then rode Buzz Lightyear. Not once, not twice, but three time in a row. The girls then went back to Space Mountain with FPs and I crossed the park to be at the 8am rope drop for Frontierland to get Splash FPs. While I was getting those, they managed to do not only Space Mountain, but also the Teacups and Winnie the Pooh.

Reunited again, we headed to the Circus and DD and I rode Dumbo one last time for this trip. It was 8:35am and we got in line for the 9:15am Rapunzel meet and greet. Much to our shock, we were almost the last people in line for that meeting. By the time we finished meeting (9:45am) the line was easily enough for the next two sessions. Sorry, but I just can't imagine waiting almost 2 hours to meet a character...

Over to Splash to ride with FPs. Lots of fun and DW and I got quite soaked by the spray during the big drop (not the wave). We then did a little shopping, picked up more Sorcerers cards and visited the Easter Bunny on our way out.

11:15am and we were back in the room for some pool and relaxation time. DW went to DTD to get some lunch from Wolfgang Puck Express while DD and I did a little swimming. I still think Wolfgang Puck Express is the best deal on the Dining Plan as we got $63 worth of food for 3 counter credits. Since a full day is just a little over $100 for us, that's good eating for the $$.

Then a little nap time for everyone and around 3:15pm we headed for Epcot. Lots of gardens touring and butterfly time, 3 more Kim Possible missions happened (UK, France, and Japan) with a nice break in the Rose and Crown pub took up the next couple hours. Some of those pictures will be up soon, I promise!

7:30pm and we are riding El Rio de Tiempo or Gran Fiesta Trio just before our dinner at La Hacienda to eat and watch fireworks from our table. It is nice to be able to relax during the show, but also you can't see everything unless you are right at the windows, so not sure if we'll do it again or not. After dinner, we were heading out with a quick ride of Spaceship:Earth. 10pm and back to the room to sleep.

 

[brifraz]

Wow!

2 rides on EE, Dinosaur, Prime-Evil Whirl, breakfast and back to the resort by 9:30.

Talk about efficient!

That's cool about the haircut. I didn't know you could donate your hair.

Hey, just wait for the Day 7 EMH efficiency!

And, they are donating their hair through Pantene - Disney doesn't do it, but they will wrap it up for you.

 

[brifraz]

Loving the trip report. I'm also not feeling so "scared" about a possible trip the week before Easter next year. Can't wait for the rest!

We are always here at peak times. Easter, Christmas, and mid-Summer. I hope you are onsite, because the Extra Magic Hours really do make it work. The parks have been pretty packed this week, but with morning hour starting at 7am, most vacationers can't get up early enough. And as I said earlier, the Magic Kingdom at 2am is a blast. Not sure that either Epcot or Studios are really worth the night hours, but we still got a couple things done.

 

[brifraz]

Day 7 - pre Check Out

Once again, we were up at 6am and headed to Studios at 6:15am. Our hope was to get some headliners done and be back in the room around 9:30am to pack. Mission: Accomplished.

7am Opening and we headed to Toy Story. No rope drop, just turnstiles at 7am meant the crazy mad dash and insane FP lines didn't happen. SO...we got FPs for 7:45am and rode immediately. Then over Rockin Roller Coaster for a ride and luckily we exited right at 7:45am, so we got FPs to do that later as well. The girls then did a ride on Tower of Terror while I got some yum from Starring Rolls.

After our light breakfast, back over to Toy Story to use the FPs and then back over to RnRC for those FPs (with a brief detour to see if we could catch the 8:30am Animation Academy - missed by a couple minutes!). On the way out we got a few addition photos.

So from 7am-9:15am we did Toy Story 2x, RnRC 2x, and Tower of Terror. And still had about 15 minutes for an Apple Turnover and coffees.

Now it is time to pack up the car and then head over to Epcot for lunch and whatever else we 'need' to do before hitting the road. That likely means that my next post - with the end of day 7 won't be until Saturday afternoon at the earliest and Monday at the latest. After that recaps and pictures to follow.

 

[LuLaSue]

Awsome trip report! You little girl is to cute! I love the fact they donated their hair!

 

[brifraz]

The End is Nigh

So, here we are back north and at least well enough rested to finish up the report from Day 7. Not a whole lot of big excitement, but some worthy info and a little commentary (as previously mentioned, I'll save all my op-ed material for a couple of days of reflection...).

Once we got packed up, it was over to Epcot for our last touring of the week. Upon arrival, we took note of the exceptional lines and crowds. 25 mins. listed for Nemo, so we just entered The Living Seas through the back door and visited with Crush, then went over to our lunch at The Coral Reef. After reading so much mixed about the place and having two distinctly not-seafood-loving girls with me, this was going to be a hard sell. Well, consider us sold. My trout was excellent and DWs steak was quite good as well, BUT the real winner was the view. We got lucky enough to be seated right next to the tank and had two sharks doing laps right next to us. Quite enjoyable.

After lunch, it was decided that we would wait however long Nemo required, so after only about 6 minutes wait (still listed as 20) we got to sail the seas one last time with Nemo and friends. Following that, we rewarded our DD's good behavior for the week with one final Kim Possible mission in China (which meant we did all 7 countries on this visit - although as most of you know not every single clue/mission is included every time). This was most likely the saddest moment of our trip as DD turned in her Kimmunicator for the very last time.

While that picture is posed and was set up to be silly, we actually did have a brief period of crying from DD as we excited - combination of the sadness of leaving and the sadness of Kim Possible leaving the parks. She is trying to convince us to win the lottery in the next few weeks so we can have an early June visit - hopefully before the Perry overlay begins.

So, that's just about it for the actual activity of the trip. In store for this week in the "Post" section will be (not necessarily in order):

1 - Full trip wrap-up - hightlights, lowlights, and other thoughts
2 - The latest on new and resurfaced old Pet Peeves at DW
3 - Link to the full photo update on Picasa
4 - Dining Plan financial report

See you soon!

 

[brifraz]

Awsome trip report! You little girl is to cute! I love the fact they donated their hair!

Thanks for the kind words!

 

[radev104]

Great report. Looking forward to the post report.

 

[brifraz]

Part 1 of Post Trip

So, this past week of work has taken a lot more time and energy than perhaps I was expecting and the post trip is a little behind...

Some thoughts:

For week before Easter, it didn't feel too terribly packed. It was certainly crowded and we were very happy to get out early in the day and stay out of the parks during the afternoons. We are VERY happy with the plan that we had of sticking very closely to the EMH. Did some figuring on the ride home and we pretty much did EVERY open attraction in all 4 major parks except - Festival of the Lion King, Universe of Energy, Carousel of Progress, Country Bear Jamboree, Hall of Presidents, Backlot Tour, and Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. None of which (in our books) is any great loss. AND, we did everything without ever waiting in line more than 15 minutes. The only wait for ANYTHING that was longer than that was to meet Rapunzel. So, EMH really worked for us this visit. Or, to summarize, 2am at MK is a winner. Period.

FLE is really looking good. The areas of Storybook Circus that are opened look quite impressive in attention to detail and theme. Here's hoping it all turns out that good or better.

Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom looks to be enjoyable. I feel like we didn't quite understand everything at the get go - like do the key cards continue to work weeks/months/years later? But, DD enjoyed the adventure that we went on but if people keep their key cards, it would seem that eventually there would be quite a crowd trying to visit any given scene location at any given time. At least with Kim Possible (and maybe Perry soon) there is a limited number of adventures that are assigned at any given time. In theory, every park guest could have a SotMK key card and decide to do their adventure at the same time.

I've shared some of my Kim vs Perry thoughts before, so I'm not going to belabor the point too much. But, to me, Kim at this point has become an Epcot character NOT a tv show character. Using a VERY popular tv show character IMHO again cheapens a bit of the World Showcase experience. Also, I expect the imagineers to shoehorn Doofenshmirtz into each country quite well, but the villians and their plots in KP were very country specific and almost forced a bit of that county's culture on the little ones doing the adventures. I'm afraid that Perry adventures may just use the countries as convenient backdrops - i hope not, but I fear so. My other big concern is that it will be TOO popular. It's bad enough with KP that 3 or 4 people might be waiting for the Baby Bebe Bot to burp in Japan at the same time, but with Perry I expect there to be lines waiting for whatever things happen.

Nice to see so much attention being paid to MK - FLE, Main Street beautification, BTM refurb, new walkway/restrooms between FL and HM. Really wish that kind of attention would head toward Studios, which has quiet a few things that are bad show - Sounds Dangerous, empty soundstages, backlot tour.

OK, enough of this kind of commentary. Coming up next (maybe even soon) will be a little diversion into the Pet Peeves that this visit reminded my of....