OK, There were two adults and one 2-year old on this trip. It was our first plane trip ever and we went exclusively to WDW for 4 nights, 5 days with the Silver Wish Package. To begin with, I am extremly well organized when it comes to planning longer trips, however with this trip being such short notice, having fewer days, and being very specific about what we wanted to see and do... there were many more bumps along the way this time. Never the less, we had a great vacation and got to see all the top priorities on our list.
Day 1
Being the "Maximize my time" type of guy I am I can safely say I overplanned this day even when I felt I had allowed extra time. :lol: To begin with, since our flight did not leave til 1:30 I foolishly thought I could go a half day to work that morning. Well, never having been to an airport before or knowing the typical procedures, this decision can be marked as mistake #1. We were frantically moving from one area to the next getting to the boarding area just as our flight number was being called.
The actual plane trip took 70 minutes which was incredible. We got to Orlando Airport and found our luggage no sweat. Things were looking good, it was 3:00 and we had a Fantasmic Brown Derby Package PS for 6:10, no problem, right? :animwink: Well, next was Mears...
I had reserved a shuttle online thinking I was going to save myself some time. Well, it may very well have, but I had my arrival date as the 12th. The Mears people were surprisingly fine with that and said it was no problem to correct, but... the Airport Security went off and locked all credit card, online, and other transactions of this type off, so my reservation could not be brought up on screen. Finally, the cashier recieved word to just write up a new pre-paid boarding pass for me and be done with it. This was all ok, albeit time consuming, until we were sitting at the Mears loading area and I noticed they had us down for All-Stars Music and not Movies. :brick: After a long wait, we were finally on our way at 4:15! We had to stop at three more airport loading docks, the Gaylord Palms, and the Music and Sports before getting to Movies at 5:30!!
We checked in and I was happy to just be there and be getting the Dalmations area I had requested so many times prior to arrival only to find out we were in Love Bug. They made some calls, but nothing could be done and they said the request was not in their systems... Arrggh. No Major Concern I guess but the Love Bug is very far from the Check in area. We got in our room at 6:00. I called trying to change our Brown Derby time, but you could not do so, and if you are a no show you are charged, so off to MGM catching a bus around 6:20. We finally arrived at Brown Derby at 6:40.
This is the Happy Ending of the Day... the food at the Brown Derby was simply amazing. We both had the Lump Crabcake for a starter (it is amazing!), my wife got a Roasted Chicken Half and I got the sesame Tuna. Again... amazing, this is like gourmet dining. For Desert my wife had a Vanilla Creme Bruele and I had the Grapefruit Cake... once again amazing. We used wishes to pay for the $110 meal.
We went to the Fantasmic Entrance, got fantastic seats in my opinion and had a truly magical experience.
Day 2
We started the morning early with a Surprise Morning at MK. We did all of Fantasyland, plus Buzz Lightyear before eating with Pooh and the Gang at the Crystal Palace. The food was great but the Character time is horrible. We did a Pooh Breakfast when it was at Tony's Town Square and we enjoyed that much much better. After eating we headed to Animal Kingdom to catch some of the attractions we have yet to experience.
At Animal Kingdom it was incredibly hot as usual. We started with the Safari and since it was feeding time we saw more animals then ever before. Also, since Standby time was only 15 minutes we got to see the movie clips in the line (we normally fastpass this attraction). Next we had an experience with Ivy De Vine, if that's her name, we then headed to Tarzan Rocks! - very entertaining. Finally it was Festival of the Lion King which is always great. We then scouted a spot for the Jammin Jungle Parade. A quite enjoyable Parade but hardly worth spending all that time in the heat to view it again. The Lack of Air Conditioned attractions at Animal Kingdom is a huge draw back to the park.
We went to Rainforest after AK and used another Wish to splurge out at this unusual dining experience. We were suppose to go to Downtow Disney, but the Heat took so much out of us we decided to go bak to the room first. Everyone fell asleep and did not wake back up til the next morning. :lol:
Day 3
We had done everything we wanted to at MGM on our last trip, except Fantasmic. The ToT 4 was something I didn't want to miss and was originally going to do between Brown Derby and Fantasmic til our time crunch occured, so we went back to the park on Friday morning just for a quick ToT ride before going to EPCOT.
Boy, what a cool surprise when we exited the Bus and heard Star Wars playing all over the place. We got to the gates early and were treated to a neat Star Wars Weekend pre-show with Storm Troopers, Bubba Fett, Wise-cracks, and Sound Effects all over the place.
While every one else headed for the Star Wars stuff, we snuck to the ToT. This is where I heard my first Crazy Guest Qoute. A son asks "Is this the Tower of Terror 4?", the father replys "No son, this is the Original Tower of Terror." Anyway, I have heard about seat belt cars for a while but did not realize the insecurity they deliver until experiencing it first hand. The new effects were awesome and the seat belts force you to free fall with nothing to grab. It was a great experience, I only wish I could have rode more times to experience other options.
We left the park early and decided to hit Downtown Disney before EPCOT. Here comes the biggest complaint I have at Disney now. THEY NEED DOWNTOWN DISNEY BUS STOPS AT THE PARKS. Being the smart and knowledgeable Disney person I am I recommend we take the Ticket and Transportion Bus to catch a ride to DD. Well, there is no bus from there either we find out, so we are off to Wilderness Lodge. The freaky bugs at WL are pretty bad this time of year. We finally make it to DD to buy souvenirs for relatives and friends. Again my brillance shows when I suggest we have it delivered to our hotel thinking I can prevent the Chocolate and Fudge from melting during our visit to EPCOT. Well, the cashier is nice and gets me to fill the forms out and just as we are heading out the door runs us down with a bag of our chocolate and fudge saying they cannot ship these items. D'oh, we now have to make a trip to our hotel to store the Meltable items before going to EPCOT and essentially making it pointless that we shipped the other items.
All that taken care of we enter EPCOT and have a wonderful evening. We ate at Teppanyaki in Japan and splurged with a Wish again. I got Shrimp, Scallops, and Lobster. The food is very tasty, but I was expecting more show than my local Japanese Steak House since it was Disney, but this was not the case. We got an onion Volcano and that was it.
Had special viewing for Illuminations, but we have seen it twice now and everyone was very tired, especially Nick, so we went back to the Hotel.
Day 4
We hopped a monorail to Polynesian and Kona Cafe to try the famous Tonga Toast we have heard so much about. My wife ordered that and I got the Calabash Breakfast which was unique and good as well.
This was Magic Kingdom Day. We spent the morning hours in Adventureland and Frontierland. Rode everything relatively quick. I had the best Jungle Cruise Experience ever with Danger Bob as Skipper.
We went back to the room during Midday to get in the pool and let my Wife rest a bit from something that was bothering her and to take some Pepto.
We returned in the afternoon and did Tomorrowland and Liberty Square. By now our Liberty Tree Reservations were nearing and my wife was looking very white. I suggested we leave and forget about the rest of the night and the PS arrangement. She felt bad cause she wanted to see Spectro and Fantasy in the Sky. i told her it was no big deal cause we have seen them and we could use some rest.
Turns out I made a good decision on heading back. My wife got very ill and spent most the night in the Bathroom.
Day 5
Our Mears shuttle was not to arrive til 2:30, so despite my wife being sick, we had to go somewhere and we now had several wishes we had been unable to use, so back to EPCOT to get my son and myself on a Tile (part of our package), use the rest of our wishes, and just have somewhere to be until time to leave.
The lady at the Tile area at EPCOT had to be the snappiest Cast Member I have ever ran across. Maybe she knew the proceedures like the back of her hand, but we surely didn't. Anyway, we got our shot and then went to Image Works for a Picture package using a wish. We then ate at the Garden Grill (well I did, Wendy could not). This was a terrific Character Meal, you see the characters a lot here with much interaction.
We arrived for the Mears Shuttle in good time and the return home went great.
Observations:
- The Wishes are not recommended, although you can greatly get your money's worth, if something happens like getting sick or change in plans it gets increasing harder and harder to find ways to use your wishes and still get your money's worth. We ended up getting a Picture package, a Mickey Collectible time Piece, a Mickey Photo Frame Box, and a Wilderness Lodge Lincoln Logs set because of unused wishes that we had all planned to be used for food.
- Do not use Mears if you like to schedule and plan ahead. People warned me, I should have listened. They can be friendly, but not always.
- Journey into Imagination with Figment isn't that bad. I'm starting to like it more each trip.
- Spaceship Earth is very bumpy now and unfortunately I now feel it needs to go.
- Timekeeper and CoP are listed on Park Maps despite the fact that they are closed.
- May crowds were extremly low
- Tom Sawyer Island is a surprisingly well kept secret - I liked it.
- ABC Commisary is dull
- Refillable Resort Mugs now state they are for current trip use only
Firsts:
Kona Cafe, Tonga Toast, Fantasmic, Brown Derby, Tarzan Rocks, Jammin Jungle Parade, Teppanyaki, Tom Sawyer Island, and Aladdin's Magic Carpets.
Crazy overheard Guest comments:
"Droopy is one of the seven dwarfs"
"Expedition Everest will have a 260 ft drop"
"WDW is bigger than Maryland but not bigger than any major cities"
"Animal Kingdom is Great! They have the Jurassic Park Dinosaur Adventure ride."
Day 1
Being the "Maximize my time" type of guy I am I can safely say I overplanned this day even when I felt I had allowed extra time. :lol: To begin with, since our flight did not leave til 1:30 I foolishly thought I could go a half day to work that morning. Well, never having been to an airport before or knowing the typical procedures, this decision can be marked as mistake #1. We were frantically moving from one area to the next getting to the boarding area just as our flight number was being called.
The actual plane trip took 70 minutes which was incredible. We got to Orlando Airport and found our luggage no sweat. Things were looking good, it was 3:00 and we had a Fantasmic Brown Derby Package PS for 6:10, no problem, right? :animwink: Well, next was Mears...
I had reserved a shuttle online thinking I was going to save myself some time. Well, it may very well have, but I had my arrival date as the 12th. The Mears people were surprisingly fine with that and said it was no problem to correct, but... the Airport Security went off and locked all credit card, online, and other transactions of this type off, so my reservation could not be brought up on screen. Finally, the cashier recieved word to just write up a new pre-paid boarding pass for me and be done with it. This was all ok, albeit time consuming, until we were sitting at the Mears loading area and I noticed they had us down for All-Stars Music and not Movies. :brick: After a long wait, we were finally on our way at 4:15! We had to stop at three more airport loading docks, the Gaylord Palms, and the Music and Sports before getting to Movies at 5:30!!
We checked in and I was happy to just be there and be getting the Dalmations area I had requested so many times prior to arrival only to find out we were in Love Bug. They made some calls, but nothing could be done and they said the request was not in their systems... Arrggh. No Major Concern I guess but the Love Bug is very far from the Check in area. We got in our room at 6:00. I called trying to change our Brown Derby time, but you could not do so, and if you are a no show you are charged, so off to MGM catching a bus around 6:20. We finally arrived at Brown Derby at 6:40.
This is the Happy Ending of the Day... the food at the Brown Derby was simply amazing. We both had the Lump Crabcake for a starter (it is amazing!), my wife got a Roasted Chicken Half and I got the sesame Tuna. Again... amazing, this is like gourmet dining. For Desert my wife had a Vanilla Creme Bruele and I had the Grapefruit Cake... once again amazing. We used wishes to pay for the $110 meal.
We went to the Fantasmic Entrance, got fantastic seats in my opinion and had a truly magical experience.
Day 2
We started the morning early with a Surprise Morning at MK. We did all of Fantasyland, plus Buzz Lightyear before eating with Pooh and the Gang at the Crystal Palace. The food was great but the Character time is horrible. We did a Pooh Breakfast when it was at Tony's Town Square and we enjoyed that much much better. After eating we headed to Animal Kingdom to catch some of the attractions we have yet to experience.
At Animal Kingdom it was incredibly hot as usual. We started with the Safari and since it was feeding time we saw more animals then ever before. Also, since Standby time was only 15 minutes we got to see the movie clips in the line (we normally fastpass this attraction). Next we had an experience with Ivy De Vine, if that's her name, we then headed to Tarzan Rocks! - very entertaining. Finally it was Festival of the Lion King which is always great. We then scouted a spot for the Jammin Jungle Parade. A quite enjoyable Parade but hardly worth spending all that time in the heat to view it again. The Lack of Air Conditioned attractions at Animal Kingdom is a huge draw back to the park.
We went to Rainforest after AK and used another Wish to splurge out at this unusual dining experience. We were suppose to go to Downtow Disney, but the Heat took so much out of us we decided to go bak to the room first. Everyone fell asleep and did not wake back up til the next morning. :lol:
Day 3
We had done everything we wanted to at MGM on our last trip, except Fantasmic. The ToT 4 was something I didn't want to miss and was originally going to do between Brown Derby and Fantasmic til our time crunch occured, so we went back to the park on Friday morning just for a quick ToT ride before going to EPCOT.
Boy, what a cool surprise when we exited the Bus and heard Star Wars playing all over the place. We got to the gates early and were treated to a neat Star Wars Weekend pre-show with Storm Troopers, Bubba Fett, Wise-cracks, and Sound Effects all over the place.
While every one else headed for the Star Wars stuff, we snuck to the ToT. This is where I heard my first Crazy Guest Qoute. A son asks "Is this the Tower of Terror 4?", the father replys "No son, this is the Original Tower of Terror." Anyway, I have heard about seat belt cars for a while but did not realize the insecurity they deliver until experiencing it first hand. The new effects were awesome and the seat belts force you to free fall with nothing to grab. It was a great experience, I only wish I could have rode more times to experience other options.
We left the park early and decided to hit Downtown Disney before EPCOT. Here comes the biggest complaint I have at Disney now. THEY NEED DOWNTOWN DISNEY BUS STOPS AT THE PARKS. Being the smart and knowledgeable Disney person I am I recommend we take the Ticket and Transportion Bus to catch a ride to DD. Well, there is no bus from there either we find out, so we are off to Wilderness Lodge. The freaky bugs at WL are pretty bad this time of year. We finally make it to DD to buy souvenirs for relatives and friends. Again my brillance shows when I suggest we have it delivered to our hotel thinking I can prevent the Chocolate and Fudge from melting during our visit to EPCOT. Well, the cashier is nice and gets me to fill the forms out and just as we are heading out the door runs us down with a bag of our chocolate and fudge saying they cannot ship these items. D'oh, we now have to make a trip to our hotel to store the Meltable items before going to EPCOT and essentially making it pointless that we shipped the other items.
All that taken care of we enter EPCOT and have a wonderful evening. We ate at Teppanyaki in Japan and splurged with a Wish again. I got Shrimp, Scallops, and Lobster. The food is very tasty, but I was expecting more show than my local Japanese Steak House since it was Disney, but this was not the case. We got an onion Volcano and that was it.
Had special viewing for Illuminations, but we have seen it twice now and everyone was very tired, especially Nick, so we went back to the Hotel.
Day 4
We hopped a monorail to Polynesian and Kona Cafe to try the famous Tonga Toast we have heard so much about. My wife ordered that and I got the Calabash Breakfast which was unique and good as well.
This was Magic Kingdom Day. We spent the morning hours in Adventureland and Frontierland. Rode everything relatively quick. I had the best Jungle Cruise Experience ever with Danger Bob as Skipper.
We went back to the room during Midday to get in the pool and let my Wife rest a bit from something that was bothering her and to take some Pepto.
We returned in the afternoon and did Tomorrowland and Liberty Square. By now our Liberty Tree Reservations were nearing and my wife was looking very white. I suggested we leave and forget about the rest of the night and the PS arrangement. She felt bad cause she wanted to see Spectro and Fantasy in the Sky. i told her it was no big deal cause we have seen them and we could use some rest.
Turns out I made a good decision on heading back. My wife got very ill and spent most the night in the Bathroom.
Day 5
Our Mears shuttle was not to arrive til 2:30, so despite my wife being sick, we had to go somewhere and we now had several wishes we had been unable to use, so back to EPCOT to get my son and myself on a Tile (part of our package), use the rest of our wishes, and just have somewhere to be until time to leave.
The lady at the Tile area at EPCOT had to be the snappiest Cast Member I have ever ran across. Maybe she knew the proceedures like the back of her hand, but we surely didn't. Anyway, we got our shot and then went to Image Works for a Picture package using a wish. We then ate at the Garden Grill (well I did, Wendy could not). This was a terrific Character Meal, you see the characters a lot here with much interaction.
We arrived for the Mears Shuttle in good time and the return home went great.
Observations:
- The Wishes are not recommended, although you can greatly get your money's worth, if something happens like getting sick or change in plans it gets increasing harder and harder to find ways to use your wishes and still get your money's worth. We ended up getting a Picture package, a Mickey Collectible time Piece, a Mickey Photo Frame Box, and a Wilderness Lodge Lincoln Logs set because of unused wishes that we had all planned to be used for food.
- Do not use Mears if you like to schedule and plan ahead. People warned me, I should have listened. They can be friendly, but not always.
- Journey into Imagination with Figment isn't that bad. I'm starting to like it more each trip.
- Spaceship Earth is very bumpy now and unfortunately I now feel it needs to go.
- Timekeeper and CoP are listed on Park Maps despite the fact that they are closed.
- May crowds were extremly low
- Tom Sawyer Island is a surprisingly well kept secret - I liked it.
- ABC Commisary is dull
- Refillable Resort Mugs now state they are for current trip use only
Firsts:
Kona Cafe, Tonga Toast, Fantasmic, Brown Derby, Tarzan Rocks, Jammin Jungle Parade, Teppanyaki, Tom Sawyer Island, and Aladdin's Magic Carpets.
Crazy overheard Guest comments:
"Droopy is one of the seven dwarfs"
"Expedition Everest will have a 260 ft drop"
"WDW is bigger than Maryland but not bigger than any major cities"
"Animal Kingdom is Great! They have the Jurassic Park Dinosaur Adventure ride."
There's nothing worse than being sick on vacation, especially to DisneyWorld. I hope she's feeling better.
