Just got done with our trip and we are now in the Tampa area visiting my parents. I'll post pictures later since I can't upload from here and this is dial-up. 
As some of you know, I recently lost my job, so we scaled back on our trip with lodging and length of stay. We cancelled our reservations at POR and moved to Downtown Disney Days Inn. We had a rate for $42 a night and for what we used it for (sleeping and showering), it was well worth it. It wasn't fancy-schmancy, but it was nice. We were able to upgrade (free) with a website promotion coupon to a room with a sleeper sofa and a refrigerator. We were very pleased with what we got for our money and it saved us quite a bit in the wallet.
SUNDAY: Animal Kingdom. This is not our favorite park and we decided to give it a second chance by hitting it fresh on our trip. The safari ride was the best one we've had yet, thanks to two white rhinos who decided to playfight in the middle of the road and bring the ride to a standstill. Another one of our goals this year was to do something new in every park, something we had not done yet as a family. Our new thing for AK was Flights of Wonder and this will now become a staple on our AK visits. We were most impressed with this. Lunch at Flame Tree was excellent, as usual. Festival of the Lion King was much nicer now that it is enclosed. Lighting and sound is improved greatly by this. We finished the day by heading over to MGM. Our daughter rode RnRC for the first time and this is now her "ride". I think she ended up riding it 8 times the entire trip; we couldn't pay her to ride it before this year!
MONDAY: Epcot. Test Track is always the first thing for us and after two trips, the kids were ready for Mission: Space. Now, I'm not one for spinning and I'm not that big of a fan of motion simulators, but I knew I had to try this. One word: WOW!!!!! I am really impressed with what they did with this ride. I felt a little weak in the legs when it finished, but did not feel nauseated at all. I never felt the spinning sensation, but no doubt that I felt what the ride was supposed to do. I think our kids rode it about 8 times. Saw Miyuki at the Japanese pavilion make her animals from the hot taffy balls. Very neat work she does! Our daughter was the first one in line and had a blue dog made. Amazing what she can do with that taffy! Oh, also saw Kenan at Test Track--I think he was like, "who is this idiot talking to me?" when I introduced myself. Spent the whole day here and capped it off with the usual spectacular presentation of Illuminations.
TUESDAY: Magic Kingdom. There's nothing like walking into this park and feeling the magic. Our new thing here was the Enchanted Tiki Birds. Thanks, but no thanks....Another newbie was Mickey's Philharmagic. DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW!! It was absolutely wonderful and they did a great job on this attraction. Back to Epcot after we finished here and met friends for Illuminations again.
WEDNESDAY: Back to MGM. Our new attraction at MGM was One Man's Dream. We really enjoyed this. Enjoyed all the walkthrough displays and really enjoyed the movie. Not a lot of people stayed for this and it is their loss. There were 6 people in the theatre--two strangers and our family. Don't miss this if you get the chance to see it. After seeing what we didn't see at MGM on Sunday, back to MK for a few favorites and then Epcot one more time before our time was done. I rode M:S again and did better on it this time than the first. Perhaps I knew what to expect, but I could have turn around and ridden it again immediately. For those of you debating on whether to ride it or not, give it a try. I get queasy on a merry-go-round, and I couldn't feel the spinning sensation at all on M:S.
OVERALL OBSERVATIONS: Crowds were very light. Most all rides were walk-ons. Longest ride wait we had for all of us was PotC--5 minutes. Test Track was so light on Monday morning that we rode twice without having to leave the car. Mission:Space never had a wait over 10 minutes.
Bought rain ponchos since the forecast called for quite a bit of rain, but a front stalled just south of Orlando and it occasionally spit rain during the four days. Weather could have kept crowds down for us.
Food was good. As mentioned earlier, Flame Tree was outstanding and Electric Umbrella has changed their menu. Gone was the chicken sandwich and in was a roast beef sub sandwich. I opted for chicken strips and they were surprisingly good. Pecos Bills was excellent, as usual. Had a meal at Yakitori House and we enjoyed that, except for the sugar snap peas which were cold and raw. :hurl: Does anyone know if this is normal?
Biggest and only beef was the smokers around the park. Smoke doesn't bother me, but my wife is allergic to cigarette smoke and we fought this the entire time in the parks. People didn't care where they smoked at all and it was definitely not restricted to the designated smoking areas. Unfortunately, I only saw one CM ask a person to put out a cigarette--in the RnRC queue. Epcot was the worst, perhaps because more internationals are there. It would be nice to see Disney enforce this more; I guess we'll have to start asking people ourselves since it's a health issue in our family...
All in all, a wonderful trip. Don't know when we'll return again, so we soaked in as much as we could. I'll post pictures after we get home.
As some of you know, I recently lost my job, so we scaled back on our trip with lodging and length of stay. We cancelled our reservations at POR and moved to Downtown Disney Days Inn. We had a rate for $42 a night and for what we used it for (sleeping and showering), it was well worth it. It wasn't fancy-schmancy, but it was nice. We were able to upgrade (free) with a website promotion coupon to a room with a sleeper sofa and a refrigerator. We were very pleased with what we got for our money and it saved us quite a bit in the wallet.
SUNDAY: Animal Kingdom. This is not our favorite park and we decided to give it a second chance by hitting it fresh on our trip. The safari ride was the best one we've had yet, thanks to two white rhinos who decided to playfight in the middle of the road and bring the ride to a standstill. Another one of our goals this year was to do something new in every park, something we had not done yet as a family. Our new thing for AK was Flights of Wonder and this will now become a staple on our AK visits. We were most impressed with this. Lunch at Flame Tree was excellent, as usual. Festival of the Lion King was much nicer now that it is enclosed. Lighting and sound is improved greatly by this. We finished the day by heading over to MGM. Our daughter rode RnRC for the first time and this is now her "ride". I think she ended up riding it 8 times the entire trip; we couldn't pay her to ride it before this year!
MONDAY: Epcot. Test Track is always the first thing for us and after two trips, the kids were ready for Mission: Space. Now, I'm not one for spinning and I'm not that big of a fan of motion simulators, but I knew I had to try this. One word: WOW!!!!! I am really impressed with what they did with this ride. I felt a little weak in the legs when it finished, but did not feel nauseated at all. I never felt the spinning sensation, but no doubt that I felt what the ride was supposed to do. I think our kids rode it about 8 times. Saw Miyuki at the Japanese pavilion make her animals from the hot taffy balls. Very neat work she does! Our daughter was the first one in line and had a blue dog made. Amazing what she can do with that taffy! Oh, also saw Kenan at Test Track--I think he was like, "who is this idiot talking to me?" when I introduced myself. Spent the whole day here and capped it off with the usual spectacular presentation of Illuminations.
TUESDAY: Magic Kingdom. There's nothing like walking into this park and feeling the magic. Our new thing here was the Enchanted Tiki Birds. Thanks, but no thanks....Another newbie was Mickey's Philharmagic. DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW!! It was absolutely wonderful and they did a great job on this attraction. Back to Epcot after we finished here and met friends for Illuminations again.
WEDNESDAY: Back to MGM. Our new attraction at MGM was One Man's Dream. We really enjoyed this. Enjoyed all the walkthrough displays and really enjoyed the movie. Not a lot of people stayed for this and it is their loss. There were 6 people in the theatre--two strangers and our family. Don't miss this if you get the chance to see it. After seeing what we didn't see at MGM on Sunday, back to MK for a few favorites and then Epcot one more time before our time was done. I rode M:S again and did better on it this time than the first. Perhaps I knew what to expect, but I could have turn around and ridden it again immediately. For those of you debating on whether to ride it or not, give it a try. I get queasy on a merry-go-round, and I couldn't feel the spinning sensation at all on M:S.
OVERALL OBSERVATIONS: Crowds were very light. Most all rides were walk-ons. Longest ride wait we had for all of us was PotC--5 minutes. Test Track was so light on Monday morning that we rode twice without having to leave the car. Mission:Space never had a wait over 10 minutes.
Bought rain ponchos since the forecast called for quite a bit of rain, but a front stalled just south of Orlando and it occasionally spit rain during the four days. Weather could have kept crowds down for us.
Food was good. As mentioned earlier, Flame Tree was outstanding and Electric Umbrella has changed their menu. Gone was the chicken sandwich and in was a roast beef sub sandwich. I opted for chicken strips and they were surprisingly good. Pecos Bills was excellent, as usual. Had a meal at Yakitori House and we enjoyed that, except for the sugar snap peas which were cold and raw. :hurl: Does anyone know if this is normal?
Biggest and only beef was the smokers around the park. Smoke doesn't bother me, but my wife is allergic to cigarette smoke and we fought this the entire time in the parks. People didn't care where they smoked at all and it was definitely not restricted to the designated smoking areas. Unfortunately, I only saw one CM ask a person to put out a cigarette--in the RnRC queue. Epcot was the worst, perhaps because more internationals are there. It would be nice to see Disney enforce this more; I guess we'll have to start asking people ourselves since it's a health issue in our family...
All in all, a wonderful trip. Don't know when we'll return again, so we soaked in as much as we could. I'll post pictures after we get home.
