Three Days of Bliss

The dates :Sept 26 - Sept 29
The Players :Sue and John, DBF (Dear Boyfriend) and I


First I want to thank everyone here for all the advice and tips that helped make our trip priceless.

Day One: We arrived at Port Orleans Riverside at about 11 pm on Friday. What a beautiful resort. None of us had ever stayed onsite before and boy what a difference it made. I had heard folks here talking about 'always being in the magic' by staying onsite, and boy were you right. All the cast members kept saying, "Have a magical day" and were very nice and helpful. Check in was a breeze. We got to our Mansion rooms and crashed hard (went to sleep).

Day Two: Mickey woke us up this morning saying "Up and at 'em" or something. The boys were making fun of Sue and I (the big Disneyheads) for being so excited about the wake up call. As we walked to the food court we came to realize just how beautifully maintained the grounds were. We grabbed some breakfast at the foodcourt (lovely waterwheel) and headed to the bus. A note about the bus system, we used it the whole time we were there and it worked perfectly for us. We never waited more than 20 mins. for a bus, and often only waited 5 or less.

Epcot: John and DBF had never been to Epcot, Sue and I had not been there since the 80's. As we entered we saw the Leave a Legacy tiles and thought they looked nice, like giant rocks jutting out of the ground. We first rode Spaceship Earth, an Epcot Classic, though I am looking forward to Timeracers. We headed over to Mission Space for our virgin flight. I had been anticipating riding this for many moons. The pavillion was beautiful and the ride did not disappoint. Afterward we all had to sit for a bit to 'get our legs back'. Around this time we decided we were going to take our time and 'smell the roses' through our trip (this wasn’t too hard considering DBF and I needed to stop for smoke breaks every so often). The atmosphere music at Epcot really put us all at ease as well.

We got a fastpass for Test Track and headed over to Ellen's Energy Adventure, although Jon really seemed to like this, DBF and I thought it was a bit too long. We all enjoyed Test Track especially DBF. The Living Seas was a hit with everyone. We spent quite a while watching the manatees. Then it started to rain. We grabbed some (now) clear ponchos and headed to the World Showcase. (I know we skipped some things in Future World, but we were all fine with that).

At this point, the boys were getting mighty hungry, so we decided to eat at the restaurant in Norway, delicious. Backtracked to Mexico, one of my favorites, and did the boat ride. Sue and I though it was a great combination of Small World and If You Had Wings, although she had a lot of ideas on how to make it better. I always love being inside the nighttime indoor marketplace there, reminds me of Pirates of the Caribbean.
Rode Maelstrom and made our way to Germany. This is when it started to pour. DBF and I grabbed a beer in Germany and we all put on our ponchos (Sue had brought her own rain hoody). We waited a little while to watch the giant Germany cuckoo clock strike the hour, three of us took off our shoes and we continued on. American Adventure was having technical difficulties and was down. DBF and I, rallied the other smokers for (false) revolution (in the smoking section), in China, it was funny. Had a few more beers in UK and headed out of the park.

We took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom as it was open til 10pm and Sue and I wanted to be there at night to see everything lit up. Main Street and the castle were stunning just as we had expected. As soon as we got there we realized Spectromagic was going on. The place was mobbed. We waited until it was over and the crowds dissipated a bit then headed to Fantasyland.

Sue really wanted to ride Cinderella's Caurosel, so we did. Rode Snow White's Scary Adventure (boy it had been years) and as we got off were treated to Fantasy in the Sky Fireworks. Next I got to pick a ride, The Haunted Mansion! The lighting inside was just perfect (it had been a bit too bright April of 2002) and we were able to really experience it right. The best go around the Mansion since I was 10. At this point we were bushed and decided to head back and sleep. Day three coming up.:sohappy:
 
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Ellen Ripley

Ellen Ripley

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day Three

Thanks for the responses so far

Day three:

We tried getting up early enough for early entree to the Magic Kingdom but we didn't quite make it. I think we got in at regular opening time, which ended up being just fine. First stop Space Mountain. No fast pass necessary this early, we walked right on. I love the queue in this ride, and the music. Actually I just love this ride. Jon had never been on it (or to any of the parks) and really enjoyed it, we all did, exhilaration in the morning yeah. Next up was Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. We were all newbies on this one. DBF blew me away with 180,000 , but Sue had him beat. DBF kept spinning us around in the laser light tunnel part, I highly recommend doing this.

It was time for a smoke break. We went to smoke by the Grand Prix Raceway area, and as a bonus, we got to see all the cars come out of the starting line. I don't ride this, and I don't know what it's doing in Tomorrowland, but it needs to stay. The terrified, determined, uneasy look on the little kids faces, along with their slighty embarrased parental passengers, was quite a sight to see. Some of the kids could barely see over the steering wheel. It was really hilarious, check it out some time.

On to Adventureland and Pirates. On our way there, we bumped into Captain Hook . I felt just like a little kid getting my picture taken with him. I had finally completely given in to the Disney magic. Pirates is one of my top three rides, am always happy to ride it. I love the smell of the water, the caves, the skeletons, the pirates (obviously), and the pirate lingo, " avast you scurvy scum!". Much like the Haunted Mansion the day before, they seemed to have lowered the lights a bit and it was perfect. I was able to fully absorb the ride without having to nitpick anything.

Sue wanted to ride Jungle Cruise. I was a bit skeptical as the last time I rode it, I had a really boring, unfunny, hating their job skipper. And you know Jungle Cruise is all about the skipper. There was already a line so we got some fastpasses. We decided to get some espresso and ice cream and smoke. We were going to wait for our fastpasses to become valid so we could go get fastpasses for Splash Mountain (if you already didn't know this, you can get a second fastpass once the one you are holding becomes valid). When we got to Splash Mountain we noticed the standby line was only 5 mins. so we decided just to get on. It was actually more of a 10 min. wait, but that was fine. DBF had ridden this April 2002, but I guess he forgot that the drop doesn't happen right away, and they sike you out a few times with little drops. Every time a small drop came, he'd get nervous and brace himself, which is funny because he's a big tough guy. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and we all enjoyed it. Jon was especially glad to have gone on it, as he remembered Song of the South pretty well.

We go back to Jungle Cruise to use our fastpasses. We just missed getting on one boat and waited for the next one. I'm really glad we did. We had the best skipper I've ever had in my life (and I've been going to wdw since the 70's). Some of his jokes were corny, but he had a ton of them and I had never heard many of these before. His delivery was fast and furious, so you really had to pay attention. He even got us all to cheer for him when we were almost back at the dock. I wish I remembered his name. I did tell him he was the best I'd seen.

We grabbed a fastpass for Peter Pan and decided to have lunch at the Columbia Harbour House in Liberty Square. Sue had read that it was good; she was also the one who had read that the Norway restaurant was good. They had great fish and chips and clam chowder. They had a malted vinegar condiment that was very good on the fish and fries.

After lunch we rode Pan, It's a Small World, and were treated to a preview of Philharmagic! This show is great and is sure to be a real crowd pleaser. There was a cool flying sequence, totally convincing. Jon really, really, liked this one. It became his favorite attraction. We checked out Pooh, but the line was too long and the fastpass return was kind of late so we passed on it. On one of our smoking breaks in Fantasyland, we noticed the Sword in the Stone ceremony starting in front of the Carousel and Sue and I went to go watch it. It was really cute.

I'm not sure, but I think none of us had ever been to Toon Town, so we decided to check it out. Mickey and Minnie’s houses were fun to finally see. We saw a little girl having a meltdown in Minnie’s kitchen; she wanted to stay there forever. We lucked out that the train stopped there, as we wanted to head out and, after a rest, visit Downtown Disney.

After naps for three of us, and resort tv for me (I loved it), We hopped on the boat that takes you from Port Orleans Riverside to Downtown Disney. This is a really great bonus ride. It’s scenic and romantic. We ate at Fulton’s Crab House. It was a Beautiful restaurant, great food, a bit pricey. Then checked out the stores. All I remember was Once Upon a Toy, since I’m a toy collector. I was in heaven. We all got some booty and headed back to Port Orleans around 11:30pm. Again we crashed.

Next up: Day Four: MGM and Animal Kingdom in a half day!
 
Grumpy56

Grumpy56

Member
Great trip report. I agree about the raceway. A lot of folks bash it but the fact is kids absolutely love it! I got really good at stretching out so I could reach the gas pedal for my little ones. Now thankfully they are tall enough to reach the gas pedal so they can ride alone and I can take photos. But they still like to get Mom in the car if they can so they can bump me!:D

Looking forward to the rest of your report. Only 28 days till it's my turn!:sohappy:
 
Ellen Ripley

Ellen Ripley

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Again thanks for the responses, and i hope you all have lots of fun on your upcoming trips.

Day Four: (last day)

We started the day early once more. We were all a bit tired and our feet were sore, but we were still enthusiastic and happy. None of us had ever been to Animal Kingdom, and Sue and I had not been to MGM since the 80’s, or maybe Sue had not been either. I can’t quite remember. So we hop on the bus and head out to MGM. We navigate over to Tower of Terror and grab some Fastpasses. In the meantime we notice Rock ‘n Roll Rollercoaster only has a 5 min standby, so we get on. This was a first for all of us, and we didn’t quite know what to expect. As much as I liked this ride (we all did), I can’t help but think, as dark roller coasters go, I still prefer Space Mountain. I’ll even go as far as to say that, Space Mountain is scarier, maybe it’s the bumpier ride, or the nostalgia factor, I don’t know.

We still had time before Tower, so we headed to Star Tours. Sue, John And DBF all loved this one. I thought it was ok, but liked Mission Space much better. Still, I love Star Wars and am always glad to see the AT-AT at the entrance and hear the theme music.

We head back to the other side of the park to finally ride Tower. The ride was great; we all loved it, though it was a bit short. We all discussed how the newer rides tended to be shorter in length. We did feel a little cheated with the Fastpass here though. Although we did skip ahead of a lot of people, we still had at least a 20 min wait. Somebody in our elevator did something objectionable during the picture opportunity, and our photo was deleted, darn.

We got to have our picture taken with Tigger (yay) on our way to lunch. We ate at the Sci-Fi Dine-In (what a cool joint), and grabbed a bus out to Animal Kingdom.

None of us had ever been to Animal Kingdom, so we were all awestruck as we entered the park. There seemed to be so much to see. We were glad the animals looked happy and had a nice environment to live in. We had two must do’s here, Dinosaur and Kilimanjaro Safaris. First we hit Dinosaur. This was a pretty intense ride, very cool though. John was excited to see a dinosaur eating another one. A little girl in front of us was hysterical as we disembarked, this ride may be too intense for small children.

We made our way around the park, which is really beautiful and relaxing, until we got to the Safari. I don’t exactly know what happened, but we ended up having a 30 min safari, which was fine with us, maybe someone was driving slowly ahead of us. We got to see a lot of animals including: some elephants, giraffes, rhinoceros, lions, cheetahs, some monkeys, and a whole bunch of birds and moose like animals. After we got off we hit the trail where you get to see gorillas, I love gorillas.

It was 3pm now and was time for us to go. The most eventful thing that happened on the ride back was that we got a flat tire. We managed to get to a Walmart where they fixed us up.

Final thoughts:
This was the best Disney vacation of my adult life. On some other trips I just hadn’t been able to mentally ‘get into’ some of my favorite rides, like Haunted Mansion or Pirates. I used to attribute this to not being a kid anymore. This time, the planets seemed to align and I was into all of it, even the characters. Did staying at a Disney Resort make the difference? Was it going with another Disneyhead (Sue)? Or was it going with some newbies? I’ll never know exactly what it was, but we all had a really good time, even the slightly cynical boys.
 
Grumpy56

Grumpy56

Member
Reallly enjoyed your trip report. Particularly liked what you said about getting into the magic. That's the reason that so many of us adults keep going back. It's what people don't get when they ask you "but didn't you just go last year?" If you can get into that flow, then you really do feel like a kid again. How many oppurtunities do we have for that these days? Sure there are difficulties, the cost, the crass commercialism, maybe the parks aren't what they used to be but maybe they're something better. When you let yourself play let's pretend, all that fades into the background.

Sound like you made some good memories, are there photos?
 
Ellen Ripley

Ellen Ripley

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Hi Grumpy56,

Still have to get the photos developed. I will post on this thread when I've uploaded some to the photogallery. And yes, getting into the Magic is key to going to The World.
 

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