The Trip - 7/25-7/30/03

Friday July 25-Wednesday July 30

3 guys get away from it all by hitting Disney!

No kids! No wifes! No girlfriends! No worries!


Part 1: Friday 7/25

Trip started out great. Arrived at the jetblue terminal at JFK in NY around 1030am hoping to fly standby and get on the 1pm flight. Upon arrival, we notice there’s a flight at 1050. As a goof, I ask the employee if we could jump on that one. Well, she called to the gate, checked availability, and personally ran us to the gate! What a gal! Now that’s service! The flight was great, jetblue is awesome, will fly them any chance I get!

Had reservations with happy limo. Called them from the luggage area, and within 10 minutes they were there-with a free upgrade from towncar to stretch limo!! Boy, this trip is shapin up A-O-K! we made a pitstop at a local grocer and scored some granola bars for early mornin rushing and a case of coronas and some limes for poolside! Yeah! Happy limo was great-the driver was cool and they had no problem with our 9-hour early arrival! Would use again.

Checked in at the contemporary around 2pm, a solid 9 hours ahead of schedule (our original ticketed flight wouldn’t have gotten in to MCO until 10pm!)

Booked in the wings, I requested a room close to tower and got one in the north wing that was right next to the bus depot and a skip into the a-frame! Facing the pool area side was nice compared to the parking lot alternative, but the view wasn’t great. Who cares?! That’s not what we were there for anyway!

Since this was the first time at Disney for one of the dudes in our party (35yrs to the day! Can ya imagine?) we decided to give’em a quick overview and jumped a monorail through the resorts, then to epcot, where we rode up front and got co-pilot licenses! The driver got a kick out of 3 30-something guys running around acting like infants! "gee thanks for the license mister!"

We had dinner with our favorite furry freaks at chef mickeys! Donald rules! Then we hit the water pageant from the contemporary beach and then hit the roof for some drinks and fireworks! This was all gravy considering we shouldn’t of even been there yet! Yay!

Next up: Day 2-4 parks on the first day! Yeah!
:king:
 

sharky23

New Member
Original Poster
Day 2

Saturday, July 26
Park 1: Animal Kingdom

We didn’t want our first timer to see MK first, so we decide on Animal Kingdom and build from there. Hit AK around 9am and made dinosaur our first ride. Our first timer was like "woah!" as he had never seen anything like Disney magic before! We rode this twice and on the second go around it broke, the lights came up, and we were stuck for a while. Never happened to me before. Our first time Disney dude who we’ll call Donald since he loves the duck so much, says "it’s me1 I’m cursed,crap like this happens to me all the time." I shrugged it off, not knowing how true his words would be over the course of our trip!

We then hit the bug movie. This is definitely Disney’s best 3D movie. Donald was laughing like a dope the whole time! It was great being with a first timer, you really feed off them!

After the movie we hit the safari. I dunno, maybe it’s me, but I don’t see the big deal. I’ve been on it quite a few times too. It’s just a safari IMHO. The others agreed and were bored. I wouldn’t wait more than 5 or 10 minutes to ride this.

I love animals, belong to the WCS in NY and go to the zoos and aquarium frequently. I get the same fundamental lessons at a zoo as I do at AK. Sure, Disney does it bigger and better but it’s still just a zoo. A 50 bucks a day zoo. After a few hours you are done and don’t need to return, and we didn’t for the rest of our stay but hit all the other parks 2, 3 and 4x each.

Maybe this Everest thing they are building will help, but again, in my opinion this park is hurting and needs more "Disney" magic. The primeval whirl ride is heinous looking! And the raft ride is…a raft ride you can get at any six-flag park. Since when did Disney do ANYTHING like this? Boo I say!

One note, there was this woman dressed up like a tree that came out of the flora and walked around the park, blending into the trees, really putting on a show!
I never realized how sexy a root could be!

We split AK around noon for MGM.

Next up: Park 2 - MGM
 

sharky23

New Member
Original Poster
Cont'd

Note: We Didn't hit the boardwalk (went by it though) didn't have time. No PI either. We didn't need it! Plenty to do at the parks and hotels!


Park 2 – MGM


Got to MGM around 12:30 or so, and did a bee-line for TOT. Big line. Grabbed a fast pass and went to Star Tours. This thing really needs something. The queuing area is way cooler than the ride itself. You don’t feel like you’re flying at all. It was cool back in the day, time for a re-jiggering. How about ditching the simulator and creating a Star Wars dark ride ala Dinosaur?

Went to see our pals at Muppetvision, one of my favorite MGM attractions. It started to pour and we jumped in right on time. It was fun, as always. We cruised on over to the TOT area and checked RNR, the line was 60 minutes. TOT was 30 and since we had a bit until our fastpass matured, we jumped on.

TOT is a masterpiece, plain and simple. Donald couldn’t believe it! Myself, and our other compadre, who we’ll call Ape for his love of, you guessed it, apes, were scared poopless! As soon as the elevator began ascending, he starts pleading "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Hold on, man! Wait!" It was hysterical! When the 1,000 points of light sequence hit we were giddily screamin’ like geeks! The we continue up to the floor and leave the track, heading through the hotel on our way towards the plummet. "Yo! YOOOOOO!! Get me off this thing!! STOP! AAAAAAAA!!!" Ha! Awesome!

The car warms up, everything is black, you know you’re close. Since I was the only one who had previously ridden, I let out a "Here we go!!!" and BAM! We’re dropped!
And yanked! Dropped, shaken, was that a blinking eye I just saw? Drop! What’s that smell? Strobes, heat, 2 skeletons sitting on ledge staring at me, what? Was that really there? Shot all the way back up AGAIN, dropped! WOW!!!!!!! Donald says that’s the best ride ever, Ape says he was scared like mad and loved every minute, ditto for moi! TOT truly is an experience! We went back with our fastpass and rode it again, totally different sequence, seemed to have longer drops. Again, WOW!

RNR still had a crazy wait so we split. In retrospect we should have waited the 50 minutes as we never got to ride it. The next time we returned the wait was 100 minutes! I’m not waiting a 100 minutes for anything! Oh well, Ape and I’ve ridden it before. Too bad Donald didn’t get to.



Park 3: Epcot

We bagged a boat to Epcot and headed to Norway for dinner. Hot Norwegian chicks, cool! J They had an all-you-can-eat cold buffet and hot plates you ordered from the kitchen. It’s nice and light grub, so you don’t feel like a slob afterwards. I had eaten there during Christmas a few years back and really liked it. This time, it was so-so. Donald absolutely hated it. "This food is beat!" he kept crabbing. Well, you don’t know until you try it. I like it because, as said before, I don’t feel like a stuffed piggy after eating there.

We headed for the monorail and jumped on Spaceship Earth with no line whatsoever. This is another masterpiece-hope they leave it alone, there’s plenty of other stuff that could use a face lift before this. This was Donald’s first slow dark ride. I was interested in seeing his reaction. He rode up front with Ape, and I chilled in the back. The verdict? "Dude, that’s awesome!" J



Park 4: MK!

Jumped the monorail to TTC and made it to MK around 9, right during Spectro. I blurted "Follow me!" and we bolted through the stores of main street and into Tomorrowland! A nice job of thwarting the crowds! There was only one way to end this whirlwind day…SPACE MOUNTAIN! We rode it twice! 1 on each side. Everyone loved this classic masterpiece! Note: There weren’t any asteroids! Y’know, the big chocolate-chip cookies projected onto the ceiling? They weren’t there. Also, all fed-ex signage is gone.
How’s that for a guy’s first trip to Disney in the sweltering, crowded summer? Do all 4 in one day! What a tour guide they have I said!

We monorailed over to the Tambu lounge for a few cold ones. Then we went to the room, changed and went poolside until almost 2! Boy, we’re gonna be beat tomorrow! I mean, today!





Sunday July 27


MK



Woke up a bit late for early morning at MK, so we decided to grab breakfast at the concourse steakhouse. When you’re not in the mood for rug rats and six-foot mice, this place comes in handy. Breakfast is good here, as you order what you want rather than hit the buffet table. We ended up eating here a couple of times.

Hit MK around 9:30 and couldn’t believe how crowded it was; so much for Sunday being a quiet time at the park! Regardless, it was relatively easy to navigate. We went to Pirates and rode that with a 15 min. wait. Glad to see they didn’t add anything from the movie (which I enjoyed quite a bit) "We want the redhead!" will forever be one of my all time favorite chants! Of course, we all screamed in unison, "Us too!" After all, For a robot, she is pretty hot. Then we cruised over to Splash and picked up a fast pass and took in the Haunted Mansion in the time being. Sure hope they don’t do anything to this ride when that movie comes out; that could be disastrous! Hit Splash and watched as Donald’s eyes lit up! This is one of Ape’s and my self proclaimed "Happy Places." Soon, it would be Donald’s as well. Love those three ‘possums dangling, wiggling their limbs in spastic harmony!

After that, we hitched a ride on the Walt Disney railroad over to that kiddy area and walked over to tommorowland, where the lines for Space were huge, so we took in Alien encounter. Did they tone this down a lot or what? Ape and I thought Donald would totally get a kick out of this, as he is into demons and stuff (not actually, more like a running joke since our teens-too much to get into here). He thought it was lame and I had to agree it was more so than I remember.

We took a stroll through Fantasyland where we thought we’d get on the wild and crazy Pooh! But alas, 50 minute wait, so we took in Snow White. "hey yo, does this t’ing invert?" I say to the CM as we board. He cracked a smirk that said "Hey look! Three Dopeys!" We tore-up the road in Snow White and hit the pool. I took a spin on a water mouse boat (they are fun!) and before you know it, I look at my watch and realized it was time to bag on over to Epcot for dinner at Disney’s version of a strip joint: Restaurant Marrakesh!



Epcot

I love this place! I mean, the whole deal, from the to the music to the rides to the food and…to the booze! Yay! We were a little early so we went to the Living Seas to kill a little time. The tank was more beautiful than ever, with lots of divers inside. This was kinda bittersweet, as I am a diver and planned on doing this on this trip when I booked it early this year. That was before I found out I had an AVM in my brain that needed immediate surgery. 4 months later, I’m here and real happy to be alive, but can’t dive for a year. L This fact would also keep me from riding Mission: Space! (More on that later)

We got to Morocco a little after 6 and couldn’t believe how empty it was! I have eaten here a few times and the food was always good and same for the, um, entertainment. Well, once again, the food was real good! Living in Manhattan, I’m fortunate that I get to have exotic foods from time to time and Marrakesh is pretty legit stuff. And the belly dancer! OH, that BELLY DANCER! She’s a hot tamale! A gift from above! Hot as blazes I tell ya! And she wiggles like a worm on a hook! We had a blast! All enjoyed the food, all enjoyed what’s-her-name. Highly recommended.

We jimmy-jammed over to England and grabbed a table for Illuminations: Reflections of acid reflux! Enjoyed a few pints of bass while we waited the hour for the show.

They really blew the joint up! I mean, this is, IMHO, Disney’s best nighttime show and they really went all out like they do during holidays. Lasers were zapping, rockets bursting, the works! Donald was now really getting the scope of how big, how endless Disney’s well of entertainment goes!

Uhhh, what we do next? Oh yeah! Went back to the hotel, grabbed some beers and went to the pool for some well deserved soaking in the hot tub!






Monday, July 28

We woke and decided to chill out by the pool some more. Around 430, we headed to MK for Dinner at Liberty Tree. Now I’m no food snob, and I’ve never had any problems with the grub in Disney: I know where to go if I want a meal to remember (California grill anyone?). But the food at Liberty Tree stunk. I’ve eaten here before quite a few times and it was fine home-cooking type stuff. Blug! The only thing I liked was the Mac N cheese, and the guys hated that! The steak was so fatty, as was the ham, and the turkey was processed. Here’s hoping it was a bad night because I really like this place.

On a fun note, we all discovered our new favorite character, Meeko! When it comes to Disney cartoons, I am a snob, and pretty much hate all the new stuff since lion king, and even that can’t compare to the artwork of the old stuff. So here comes this raccoon following the legendary genius Pluto! We’re like "Hey! Look! It’s…It’s…Um…Hey! It’s the raccoon guy!" This is where, and I don’t care what anyone says, talent really plays a part. Without speaking, with a stone face on, whoever is in this thing really brought it to life! Meeko gives this deadpan stare like "you don’t know who I AM??" I say "um, the raccoon from the woodland scene in Snow white?" He deadpans. "Um, from, uh, Sleeping beauty? Robin Hood? Fantasia???? WHAT???" As the timing couldn’t be better, I hear a kid go, "Look ma! Pocahontas! Meeko! Yay!"

So I say, "I KNOW!! YOU’RE MEEKO FROM POCAHONTAS!" Meeko starts marching around the joint like he won a million bucks! It was a riot! He hung around for awhile acting all goofy, getting in a brawl with Minnie (that hussy!) and we even got him to do this mosh-pit-dance move (which we saw him doing at another table on the way out, so apparently he liked it!)! It was cool! Long live Meeko!"

(TBC...)
 
Oh to be young again. I am one of the only single guys left of my group and once a year, the wives of all my friends let us go to Vegas for the weekend.....everything that happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
Sounds like you had a great time.....looking forward to the remainder...
 

sharky23

New Member
Original Poster
me too!

Still single on this end to bro but not for long!

Vegas is a great getaway for the guys! Over here, we have atlantic city which can't touch Vegas!

Next time I said we should do some crazy exotic locale like Costa Rica or Thailand or something. They'll never go for it. I have to keep that kind of travel to when I do it alone I guess.

As for the Disney report, more to come soon! (glad you're enjoying it! too bad I have to keep it rated PG!)
 

Maria

New Member
"3 guys get away from it all by hitting Disney!

No kids! No wifes! No girlfriends! No worries!"




I´m cracking up here thinking of three thirty-something guys having a character breakfast, following a what´s-his-name big stuffed character, drooling for the belly dancer and the red head, doing the drinking around the world tour, getting on the Snow White ride, etc! :lol:

I will forgive your comments about AK, only because of what you said about Epcot... hehehe :D :animwink: lol

I am really enjoying your trip report! Please keep those posts coming! :lol:

:wave:

I did a girl´s only trip for Easter with two friends and we had such a blast (two single ones and one married)... and we encountered soooo many red haired guys! (you know, you have to pinch someone for good luck when you see one, right?) It became a recurrent joke along with "can I ask you something?" everytime we saw one! -if you know what i mean- :lookaroun :D :animwink:
 

dox

New Member
:sohappy: This has to be one of the most original and funniest trip reports ever! Can't wait for next segment.
 

sharky23

New Member
Original Poster
Note: What a dope I am! I forgot that before liberty tree on the 28th we went to Epcot, not the pool! Duh! Mixing up days!


Monday, July 28 (revise)


We woke and went back to Epcot. We would take in Universe of energy (great hangover ride! You can actually sleep on this!) Cranium Command, Donald went on Body Wars even though we warned him. Yep, he came off feeling cruddy! Then we did Test track which Ape and I had done a few years back and thought it was lame. Well, maybe they speeded it up cause io really enjoyed it this time! The queing area is fun and so was the ride. Single rider line saved us about a half hour. And ape and donald got to ride together anyway. I got to sit next to a hottie. Huhuhuhuhuh!

Mission Space was open when we got off TT! So in we went! Pretty wild! The old horizon logo is in the middle of the space wheel, I thought that was cool (miss that ride). Donald doesn’t like spinning rides but said he would do it since everyone was telling us you can’t even notice you’re spinning. We get to the front and I ask a CM about the ride. I was a bit concerned. So I told him I had brain surgery 4 months ago, and asked if he thinks I’ll be OK?
This must be a hairy ride because he said I should let my friends ride it first and let them report back to me-that it’s pretty intense. That was enough for me. Visions of my cerebellum plastered onto the back of a chair sent me packing. Then Donald decided he would spew and said he wouldn’t do it Ditto for ape. I felt like such a wussy, even though I had a pretty good excuse. I haven’t taken the chicken-line since I was about 8 at Busch gardens in VA, going on the Loch Ness monster (which I ended up riding later that day anyway!) oh well. I know I’ll be back next year, and I’ll ride it then. Is this ride really that hairy?

We then went to imagination. Yay. What is with the lame faux imagination institute nonsense? Bring back dreamfinder!

Around 430, we headed to MK for Dinner at Liberty Tree. Now I’m no food snob, and I’ve never had any problems with the grub in Disney: I know where to go if I want a meal to remember (California grill anyone?). But the food at Liberty Tree stunk. I’ve eaten here before quite a few times and it was fine home-cooking type stuff. Blug! The only thing I liked was the Mac N cheese, and the guys hated that! The steak was so fatty, as was the ham, and the turkey was processed.

Here’s hoping it was a bad night because I really like this place. On a fun note, we all discovered our new favorite character, Meeko! When it comes to Disney cartoons, I am a snob, and pretty much hate all the new stuff since lion king, and even that can’t compare to the artwork of the old stuff. So here comes this raccoon following the legendary genius Pluto! We’re like "Hey! Look! It’s…It’s…Um…Hey! It’s the raccoon guy!" This is where, and I don’t care what anyone says, talent really plays a part. Without speaking, with a stone face on, whoever is in this thing really brought it to life! Meeko gives this deadpan stare like "you don’t know who I AM??" I say "um, the raccoon from the woodland scene in Snow white?" He deadpans. "Um, from, uh, Sleeping beauty? Robin Hood? Fantasia???? WHAT???" As the timing couldn’t be better, I hear a kid go, "Look ma! Pocahontas! Meeko! Yay!"

So I say, "I KNOW!! YOU’RE MEEKO FROM POCAHONTAS!" Meeko starts marching around the joint like he won a million bucks! It was a riot! He hung around for awhile acting all goofy, getting in a brawl with Minnie (that hussy!) and we even got him to do this mosh-pit-dance move (which we saw him doing at another table on the way out, so apparently he liked it!)! It was cool! Long live Meeko!"

We left the restaurant and made our way over to Adventureland, when it began to pour, so we deeked-out in Tiki Birds. Man, this was my favorite as a kid! When they start breaking out that "innnnnn theeee tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room!" stuff I’m done! But wait! What’s this? Disney imagineers circa year 2000 think they can do better than Walt! Why, it’s the annoying Gilbert Gottfried parrot! Wow! Now it’s sooooo much better!! They ruined the tiki birds! I can’t believe the audacity!

What’s next? "it’s a small world" done with rappers? "Yoyoyoyo! Bust it! It’s a, it’s a, yeah! It’s a small world, check out my girl, it’s a small world, think I’m gonna hurl! Yeah!" This is such schlock! Thank goodness (at least) the tiki gods are still there and the birds themselves (even though they don’t matter anymore). How about they program it so at certain times it’s the new, cruddy version, and others the original, brilliant version. Shame on you guys man.

Then we took in Country Bears (uh-oh! I thought. Didn’t Disney release some lame-o movie about this recently?) But yay! They left it alone! Donald was quakin’ up and he filmed the whole thing. Big Al rules! He should start a band with Meeko.

We back tracked as it approached sunset and took in the Jungle Cruise (here’s a question: what is the music they play on line here? It’s like roaring 20’s stuff-not big band but real cool. We all were wondering-want to get an album. Any ideas?) It was fun as usual, the boat captain was pretty funny, but it was not very crowded. I’m worried this is in it’s last days. They axed 20,000, why not this? Think how many characters could line up here and sign autographs for half the price of running the ride!

After JC, we rolled up on main street and grabbed some candy. Ape loves that fudge! It was time for spectro! It was OK, I like the main street electric parade better, more quirky and whimsical. The coolest float, the demon from Fantasia wasn’t there! I said "Donald! There should be a big demon float! It’s not here! I’ve never seen it broken before!" then he reminds me that it’s his fault." Hmmmm. I start to wonder.

We hung around afterwards and waited for the fireworks. There is nothing like watchin the parade and fireworks from Main street! Doop! There goes Tinkerbell! Donald couldn’t believe it was a real person. We were pretty beat after the ‘works and decided to hit the contemporary pool. (I’ll give my resort review and stuff later)


Tuesday, July 29 E-Ride Night


This is where the crowds really started taking their toll. We went to MGM to do a few drops on TOT and a few loops on RNR. Yeah Right. 100 minutes for RNR 90 for TOT. Foogetit! We did the great (barf!) movie ride instead. This has to be the worst ride disney has ever made. I’d rather wait 20 minutes on the turkey leg wagon line and find out they were sold out than go through this turd again. Donald looked like he got hit in the head with a rock "dude..why?" he whimpered.

We had an hour and a half until lunch at sci-fi. So we did the backlot tour. Again, I’m a disney head, have been since I was a zygote. I’m not here to bash but this is pretty weak too. We spent more time looking at parking lots then anything else. If you’ve done the Universal Tram in LA you know that feels legit. This feels false (one of the very few things universal does better than disney).

Lunch at sci-fi was MOBBED! Glad I made PS, cause people were getting turned away big time. The guys totally dug the ambience and the movie trailers like the crawling death and such. The cat that hates people rules! He should be in a rock band with big al and meeko!

We made one last pass at TOT. No go, lines till nuts so we went back to the hotel for some pool action. Around 4 we went and bagged our E-ticket night wrist bands and decided to go to Epcot for Illuminations one last time and some beer. Along the way our monorail broke down for like 20 minutes. Another first. Donald is right-he’s cursed.

We caught the land and checked out some hydroponics. Then we went to England, got a beer or two, went to Mexico, had another beer or two, and watched illuminations from between the two. Great spot! You’re right on top of it and you get a nice jump on the crowds. I always watch from England cause I like having a table and a beer stand handy. This spot is very good though.

Next Up: E-Night and closing notes
 

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