This trip was for my brother Kurt (15) and I, Jessica (20) kind of like a reunion trip after being separated for 12 years and finding each other this past august. So here is the trip report ....
Thursday - April 8, 2004
We woke up at about 3:30 ( i had just fallen asleep at 1:00 because I was so excited) and got the luggage loaded into my car and headed off to the airport. Mom was gonna bring us but she decided it would be ok to just leave my car at the airport and she would pay for the parking. Thanks Mom! So we get to the airport and check in our stuff, we were both feeling a little nauseous maybe because of excitement I have no idea so we both took some dramamine before the plane just to be safe. Our flight left at 7:30 am out of providence, ri and was due to land at 10:20. The flight was great (i have flown 73 times in my life and i highly recommend Southwest Airlines along with Delta). So we finally land in Orlando about 20 minutes early grab our bags and go to catch the Mears shuttle. We waited for over an hour just to be crammed in a van in which i was sitting in the front with my knees stuffed into the dash for some reason the seat wouldnt move back. But it was ok I was paying more attention to all the billboards WDW has along the highway which got me really excited. First we dropped off people at the Pop Century resort. Looked pretty nice, much bigger it seems than the All Star Resorts. Then we were dropped off at our resort, All Star Movies. Kurt sat with the luggage and I checked in. We were put in building 10, Toy Story (Buzz Lightyear). We had a short walk to the busses and the food court (convenient after a long day at the parks). We were tucked away in a quiet spot of the resort which was nice. Our room was being finished when we arrived but it was ok not a big deal. So then we went to the food court and grabbed some lunch (Gotta love those chicken strips!).
We decided that the first day we were there we would head over to the Magic Kingdom because we had reservations for the Crystal Palace. We walked into MK and when we saw the castle kurt looked at me and gave me a big hug and he siad "We finally made it" ( we had been counting down since 206 days). He laughed at me when We saw mickey in the Share a Dream Come True Parade and I said "Mickey I'm Home!" We were warned about the crowds but when we got there it was packed. We got a fastpass for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin then walked around for a bit. Not much we could do so we went into the Timekeeper and then right onto the Carousel of Progress. We wanted to get on the TTA but there was actually a pretty lengthy line for it and thats when we knew it was packed. We decided to head over to Adventureland and did the Enchanted Tiki Room. It was only about 4:30 we had 1 1/2 hours until we could use our fastpass. We hoped Splash Mountain wasn't a huge wait but it was so we jumped on the WDW Railroad and just road around. We got off at Main Street and decided that we would go to check in about 10 minutes early at the Crystal Palace. There was a lady about 8 people ahead of us who has reservations at 5:35 (right before us at 5:40) and they told her she would have to wat like 45 minutes at least so we were like nevermind lets just go somewhere else. We got to get on the monorail (is it just me or are the first monorail rides of the vacation so exciting? lol) we were able to ride up front on our way to Epcot. On our way there, a man was sitting with us up front and he was from an ABC show I dont know which one but he was talking about his script for this episode and blah blah and he had a pass on his neck but I couldnt quite read it. We were also informed that someone had hit there head or something at Epcot while in line and went unconcious. We got to Epcot decided not to even go in because again, like MK it was so busy. We decided to head over to Disney Quest, spent some time there which it was very busy there too (probably due to late afternoon showers) and then went to the hotel to get some rest.
Friday - April 9, 2004
We went to Disney MGM Studios today. We had a schedule planned out on what day to go where and do what and then just decided it wasnt worth it and picked randomly each day what to do. First thing we headed off to Rock N' Roller Coaster. I myself have never been on any roller coaster that goes upside down or anything too intense. The standby wait was 65 minutes but seemed to be moving fairly quick so Kurt and I decided that we would just have to deal with the long waits because it was a busy time to visit. We were in the "recording studio" in no more than 30 minutes. I heard from one of the bus drivers that they make the wait lines longer than they really are to maintain the crowds and somewhat scare people away but shhhhhhhh you didn't hear that from me. Well when we walked into the loading part of the ride I saw how fast the limos take off looked at kurt and he started laughing, He loves these kind of rides. Neither of us however have ever been on RnRC. Needless to say I loved it. It is my favorite ride at WDW. The picture we bought is priceless kurt doesn't look phased one bit but i do! We went to the Great Movie Ride and got on within 10 minutes. When we walked off we noticed some characters were out so we got our pictures with Goofy and then Lilo & Stitch. Then we got to meet Mike & Sully from Monsters Inc. Then over to Pizza Planet for lunch and played some games with the change we had. We went and watched Muppet Vision 3D and on our way out we got pictures taken with Woody Buzz & Jessie. We decided to go to the Backlot tour and on the way made a pit stop into a new bathroom built near where the new motor stunt show will be. We also stopped to get our pictures taken in one of the spots where you are in a green area but then placed by computer in with a bunch of characters. Kurt and I look like we are swimming with nemo marlin dory and bruce. Very Cute! We went on the Backlot Tour, got into the preshow right away no wait and it took us about 5 minutes from the preshow to actually get onto our tram. Even though I am very excited about the new motor stunt show, it took a lot out of the backlot tour. We went over to Who Wants to be a Millionaire PLAY IT! and grabbed fastpasses for the next show. We went and met Sorcerer Mickey and then grabbed a frozen banana while waiting for our fastpass times to come around. We went into WWTBAM and had lots of fun. Although none of our scores made it up on the screen, our faces did. Kurt was giving me a wet willy and a looked at him and pretened to slap him and then we looked up and saw our faces on the screen and the host was like *Yes we are watching you* i was so embarassed. We then grabbed a FP for ToT After we got out we went into One Man's Dream. I am so glad that they still have this. It's such a great tribute to Walt Disney. We headed over to ToT and we both agreed it wasn't that great. I have been on 4 times before kurt had been on once. We didn't get dropped all the way it ws just halfway at a time. We decided to go on RnRC again in which we met some nice people from Montreal. Paula, Brenda & Katherine if you read this make sure you say hi to me! When we got to the loading area the castmember asked how many of us there were we said 5 so that we could all ride together it was so fun. Kurt and I decided to call it a night and go chill out at the hotel at bout 9:30.
Saturday - April 10, 2004
I have been to WDW 10 times before, and kurt had been once. In all the times I had been there MK was always the most crowded. Not this time though, It was crowded but nothing like Animal Kingdom. I swear neither of us could move. It was ridiculous! We went to Dinosaur! and got on in 10 minutes then we went to see Tarzan Rocks! I love this show and wanted kurt to see it and he really liked it too. Then we grabbed fast passes to Kali River Rapids. We headed to Restaurantosaurus for lunch had some french fried and mcdonalds chicken nuggets. After lunch we walked around in the stores it was about the only place we could somewhat move in. We figured we would try the Maharajah Jungle Trek only to see that there was a line to get in! I have never seen this before. We went on Kali River Rapids and then decided it was too crowded and too hot (about 89 degrees that day) and went to the hotel. Before we left we met susie and pearla from cinderella and launchpad from darkwing duck. We took a little nap for about 2 hours i was still not caught up on the sleep i missed the night before we left to the airport. After that we headed over to MK and to our surprise it was very very manageable. We went on Splash mountain within 20 minutes and Big Thunder Mountain within about 7. We went over to the Haunted Mansion which was a 5 minute wait and then I was very excited we got to go do Mickey's Philharmagic. I loved it! This and RnRC are my two favorite attractions at WDW. MP even inspired kurt and I to buy Sorcerer Mickey hats. We walked around to go grab a quick bite to eat at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe. Our Aunt asked us to get the iced cappacinos because she likes the cups they come in, well we did and we got addicted, we had 6 cups for her at the end of the vacation and 1 for the each of us. We couldnt go to MK without getting one. After a late dinner we went on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin which we waited 5 minutes for then we walked right onto the TTA and waited 15 minutes to get on the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway. We went to Mickey's Toontown Fair and went into the Toontown Hall of Fame and met Pooh Eeyore & Tigger. We also took little trips into Minnie & Mickeys house. You know in mickey's house how it looks like he just had a football party? Well you know we cant see what is on the tv, but you can hear it and see the lights coming from it but because it is fenced off you cant see it. Kurt decided to lean over to try to see on the video camera if he could get it on film what was on tv, well in the process he set off the alarm in Mickey's house. But so did about 20 other people after us. It was pretty funny. We missed wishes that night because we were on all the rides during that time. But we made sure we would see it.
Sunday - April 11, 2004
Happy Easter Everyone! That morning while kurt was in the shower i told him I would go fill up our mugs in the food court. I was really going to Donald's Double Feature (All Star Movies resort store) and get an easter basket made for him. I got him a stuffed animal stitch(his fav character), a little porcelain figurine of lilo and stitch doing the hula (they have bobble heads) a happy easter pin with stitch coming out of an easter egg and thumper is with him (from bambi) and some mickey lollipops. Well kurt realized i forgot the mugs and decided to look for me. As I was getting everything put in the basket and wrapped and a bow put on for him, he walked in i chased him out and he was like why? he didnt know what was going on then i came out with the basket and he understood. then he went and made me one with a mickey sketchpad (i love drawing) a beanie baby Mickey a mickey RnRC pin a Sorcerer Mickey Clock and a flying mickey you stick to your mirror. It was great we both loved our stuff. We went to breakfast at chef mickey's that morning. We were 10 minutes late but we got seated right away. Kurt found a new girlfriend - Minnie Mouse and Dale proposed to me. It was so cute. We had the best time and some really good food. We headed to epcot after breakfast and kurt and I were kind of in a grumpy mood after a little argument so we decided to leave. I made him feel better by bringing him to Downtown Disney so he could buy his XBox at Virgin Records. We sat in the hotel for a while and played Xbox then decided to just relax for most of the day. And that was what we did
We ended up going back to DD that night only to have some kids try to start stuff with kurt in the bathroom and then while waiting for our bus about 40 drunk girls came out puking and one guy collapsed in front of us so we rode the carribean beach bus until it went back to DD and we got on a bus without 40 throwing up drunk girls.
Monday - April 12, 2004
We were still tired from the past few days and slept til about 10. It felt good to sleep! And we had blisters on our feet we were soaking them in hot towels so it felt good to rest them up. We went to DD so that kurt could buy a game for his Xbox but they didnt have it. We took teh bus to the Contemporary and grabbed the monorail to MK (shorter than taking the bus all the way back to ASM). We rode splash mountain again and had gotten a fast pass for space mountain. While waiting for space mountain we rode its a small world and teh Pirates of the carribean. Neither of them had a wait and splash mountain was 10 minutes. We were doing good with our times and as soon as we got out of space mountain we grabbed a spot for wishes. I had read many times that it made peoples eyes tear up and yes it does! it was so nice. I loved it. Kurt was picking on me at first but i think even he got a little teared up just because it was such a special place to be for us after not being able to see each other for 12 years. It kinda felt like we were little kids again which was good cuz thats how young we were before we were separated. We then sat at a little table waiting for the crowds to move out a bit and just listened to the music and took in allllll the magic MK has to offer. it was just wonderful. I loved it.
Thursday - April 8, 2004
We woke up at about 3:30 ( i had just fallen asleep at 1:00 because I was so excited) and got the luggage loaded into my car and headed off to the airport. Mom was gonna bring us but she decided it would be ok to just leave my car at the airport and she would pay for the parking. Thanks Mom! So we get to the airport and check in our stuff, we were both feeling a little nauseous maybe because of excitement I have no idea so we both took some dramamine before the plane just to be safe. Our flight left at 7:30 am out of providence, ri and was due to land at 10:20. The flight was great (i have flown 73 times in my life and i highly recommend Southwest Airlines along with Delta). So we finally land in Orlando about 20 minutes early grab our bags and go to catch the Mears shuttle. We waited for over an hour just to be crammed in a van in which i was sitting in the front with my knees stuffed into the dash for some reason the seat wouldnt move back. But it was ok I was paying more attention to all the billboards WDW has along the highway which got me really excited. First we dropped off people at the Pop Century resort. Looked pretty nice, much bigger it seems than the All Star Resorts. Then we were dropped off at our resort, All Star Movies. Kurt sat with the luggage and I checked in. We were put in building 10, Toy Story (Buzz Lightyear). We had a short walk to the busses and the food court (convenient after a long day at the parks). We were tucked away in a quiet spot of the resort which was nice. Our room was being finished when we arrived but it was ok not a big deal. So then we went to the food court and grabbed some lunch (Gotta love those chicken strips!).
We decided that the first day we were there we would head over to the Magic Kingdom because we had reservations for the Crystal Palace. We walked into MK and when we saw the castle kurt looked at me and gave me a big hug and he siad "We finally made it" ( we had been counting down since 206 days). He laughed at me when We saw mickey in the Share a Dream Come True Parade and I said "Mickey I'm Home!" We were warned about the crowds but when we got there it was packed. We got a fastpass for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin then walked around for a bit. Not much we could do so we went into the Timekeeper and then right onto the Carousel of Progress. We wanted to get on the TTA but there was actually a pretty lengthy line for it and thats when we knew it was packed. We decided to head over to Adventureland and did the Enchanted Tiki Room. It was only about 4:30 we had 1 1/2 hours until we could use our fastpass. We hoped Splash Mountain wasn't a huge wait but it was so we jumped on the WDW Railroad and just road around. We got off at Main Street and decided that we would go to check in about 10 minutes early at the Crystal Palace. There was a lady about 8 people ahead of us who has reservations at 5:35 (right before us at 5:40) and they told her she would have to wat like 45 minutes at least so we were like nevermind lets just go somewhere else. We got to get on the monorail (is it just me or are the first monorail rides of the vacation so exciting? lol) we were able to ride up front on our way to Epcot. On our way there, a man was sitting with us up front and he was from an ABC show I dont know which one but he was talking about his script for this episode and blah blah and he had a pass on his neck but I couldnt quite read it. We were also informed that someone had hit there head or something at Epcot while in line and went unconcious. We got to Epcot decided not to even go in because again, like MK it was so busy. We decided to head over to Disney Quest, spent some time there which it was very busy there too (probably due to late afternoon showers) and then went to the hotel to get some rest.
Friday - April 9, 2004
We went to Disney MGM Studios today. We had a schedule planned out on what day to go where and do what and then just decided it wasnt worth it and picked randomly each day what to do. First thing we headed off to Rock N' Roller Coaster. I myself have never been on any roller coaster that goes upside down or anything too intense. The standby wait was 65 minutes but seemed to be moving fairly quick so Kurt and I decided that we would just have to deal with the long waits because it was a busy time to visit. We were in the "recording studio" in no more than 30 minutes. I heard from one of the bus drivers that they make the wait lines longer than they really are to maintain the crowds and somewhat scare people away but shhhhhhhh you didn't hear that from me. Well when we walked into the loading part of the ride I saw how fast the limos take off looked at kurt and he started laughing, He loves these kind of rides. Neither of us however have ever been on RnRC. Needless to say I loved it. It is my favorite ride at WDW. The picture we bought is priceless kurt doesn't look phased one bit but i do! We went to the Great Movie Ride and got on within 10 minutes. When we walked off we noticed some characters were out so we got our pictures with Goofy and then Lilo & Stitch. Then we got to meet Mike & Sully from Monsters Inc. Then over to Pizza Planet for lunch and played some games with the change we had. We went and watched Muppet Vision 3D and on our way out we got pictures taken with Woody Buzz & Jessie. We decided to go to the Backlot tour and on the way made a pit stop into a new bathroom built near where the new motor stunt show will be. We also stopped to get our pictures taken in one of the spots where you are in a green area but then placed by computer in with a bunch of characters. Kurt and I look like we are swimming with nemo marlin dory and bruce. Very Cute! We went on the Backlot Tour, got into the preshow right away no wait and it took us about 5 minutes from the preshow to actually get onto our tram. Even though I am very excited about the new motor stunt show, it took a lot out of the backlot tour. We went over to Who Wants to be a Millionaire PLAY IT! and grabbed fastpasses for the next show. We went and met Sorcerer Mickey and then grabbed a frozen banana while waiting for our fastpass times to come around. We went into WWTBAM and had lots of fun. Although none of our scores made it up on the screen, our faces did. Kurt was giving me a wet willy and a looked at him and pretened to slap him and then we looked up and saw our faces on the screen and the host was like *Yes we are watching you* i was so embarassed. We then grabbed a FP for ToT After we got out we went into One Man's Dream. I am so glad that they still have this. It's such a great tribute to Walt Disney. We headed over to ToT and we both agreed it wasn't that great. I have been on 4 times before kurt had been on once. We didn't get dropped all the way it ws just halfway at a time. We decided to go on RnRC again in which we met some nice people from Montreal. Paula, Brenda & Katherine if you read this make sure you say hi to me! When we got to the loading area the castmember asked how many of us there were we said 5 so that we could all ride together it was so fun. Kurt and I decided to call it a night and go chill out at the hotel at bout 9:30.
Saturday - April 10, 2004
I have been to WDW 10 times before, and kurt had been once. In all the times I had been there MK was always the most crowded. Not this time though, It was crowded but nothing like Animal Kingdom. I swear neither of us could move. It was ridiculous! We went to Dinosaur! and got on in 10 minutes then we went to see Tarzan Rocks! I love this show and wanted kurt to see it and he really liked it too. Then we grabbed fast passes to Kali River Rapids. We headed to Restaurantosaurus for lunch had some french fried and mcdonalds chicken nuggets. After lunch we walked around in the stores it was about the only place we could somewhat move in. We figured we would try the Maharajah Jungle Trek only to see that there was a line to get in! I have never seen this before. We went on Kali River Rapids and then decided it was too crowded and too hot (about 89 degrees that day) and went to the hotel. Before we left we met susie and pearla from cinderella and launchpad from darkwing duck. We took a little nap for about 2 hours i was still not caught up on the sleep i missed the night before we left to the airport. After that we headed over to MK and to our surprise it was very very manageable. We went on Splash mountain within 20 minutes and Big Thunder Mountain within about 7. We went over to the Haunted Mansion which was a 5 minute wait and then I was very excited we got to go do Mickey's Philharmagic. I loved it! This and RnRC are my two favorite attractions at WDW. MP even inspired kurt and I to buy Sorcerer Mickey hats. We walked around to go grab a quick bite to eat at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe. Our Aunt asked us to get the iced cappacinos because she likes the cups they come in, well we did and we got addicted, we had 6 cups for her at the end of the vacation and 1 for the each of us. We couldnt go to MK without getting one. After a late dinner we went on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin which we waited 5 minutes for then we walked right onto the TTA and waited 15 minutes to get on the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway. We went to Mickey's Toontown Fair and went into the Toontown Hall of Fame and met Pooh Eeyore & Tigger. We also took little trips into Minnie & Mickeys house. You know in mickey's house how it looks like he just had a football party? Well you know we cant see what is on the tv, but you can hear it and see the lights coming from it but because it is fenced off you cant see it. Kurt decided to lean over to try to see on the video camera if he could get it on film what was on tv, well in the process he set off the alarm in Mickey's house. But so did about 20 other people after us. It was pretty funny. We missed wishes that night because we were on all the rides during that time. But we made sure we would see it.
Sunday - April 11, 2004
Happy Easter Everyone! That morning while kurt was in the shower i told him I would go fill up our mugs in the food court. I was really going to Donald's Double Feature (All Star Movies resort store) and get an easter basket made for him. I got him a stuffed animal stitch(his fav character), a little porcelain figurine of lilo and stitch doing the hula (they have bobble heads) a happy easter pin with stitch coming out of an easter egg and thumper is with him (from bambi) and some mickey lollipops. Well kurt realized i forgot the mugs and decided to look for me. As I was getting everything put in the basket and wrapped and a bow put on for him, he walked in i chased him out and he was like why? he didnt know what was going on then i came out with the basket and he understood. then he went and made me one with a mickey sketchpad (i love drawing) a beanie baby Mickey a mickey RnRC pin a Sorcerer Mickey Clock and a flying mickey you stick to your mirror. It was great we both loved our stuff. We went to breakfast at chef mickey's that morning. We were 10 minutes late but we got seated right away. Kurt found a new girlfriend - Minnie Mouse and Dale proposed to me. It was so cute. We had the best time and some really good food. We headed to epcot after breakfast and kurt and I were kind of in a grumpy mood after a little argument so we decided to leave. I made him feel better by bringing him to Downtown Disney so he could buy his XBox at Virgin Records. We sat in the hotel for a while and played Xbox then decided to just relax for most of the day. And that was what we did
We ended up going back to DD that night only to have some kids try to start stuff with kurt in the bathroom and then while waiting for our bus about 40 drunk girls came out puking and one guy collapsed in front of us so we rode the carribean beach bus until it went back to DD and we got on a bus without 40 throwing up drunk girls. Monday - April 12, 2004
We were still tired from the past few days and slept til about 10. It felt good to sleep! And we had blisters on our feet we were soaking them in hot towels so it felt good to rest them up. We went to DD so that kurt could buy a game for his Xbox but they didnt have it. We took teh bus to the Contemporary and grabbed the monorail to MK (shorter than taking the bus all the way back to ASM). We rode splash mountain again and had gotten a fast pass for space mountain. While waiting for space mountain we rode its a small world and teh Pirates of the carribean. Neither of them had a wait and splash mountain was 10 minutes. We were doing good with our times and as soon as we got out of space mountain we grabbed a spot for wishes. I had read many times that it made peoples eyes tear up and yes it does! it was so nice. I loved it. Kurt was picking on me at first but i think even he got a little teared up just because it was such a special place to be for us after not being able to see each other for 12 years. It kinda felt like we were little kids again which was good cuz thats how young we were before we were separated. We then sat at a little table waiting for the crowds to move out a bit and just listened to the music and took in allllll the magic MK has to offer. it was just wonderful. I loved it.
