Trip Report (extreme long)

[Sherm00]

Trip report long.

Since this was technically our honeymoon I did a few special things. I got my wife a set of earrings that she wanted, and I set up a scavenger hunt through the magic kingdom with the company gifts of a lifetime. I also wrote a poem for each day we were there. I gave her the first poem the night before we left. So that brings us to:

Day 1

We arrived at Orlando airport at 10am. We flew US air and our plane was actually on time. I got a little quizy on the flight. We stopped and called to let everyone know we landed safe. And proceeded to get our luggage. We got our luggage and my wife said to me “good honey we are off to a good start no lost luggage”. I booked a ford ranger pickup at budget. It was the cheapest I could find without being a really small car. My wife and me are kind of on the heavy side. We got up to the rental car place and they ran out of rangers. So I thought oh great our luck is changing. Just then they gave us (what we nicknamed the “BEAST”) was a large nissan frontier quad cad 4 door pickup with all the options. So we were off to a good start. We got to the Dolphin hotel about noon. Through my company I got a standard room with a king size bed for $99 a night. We were staying for eight days and seven nights. We pulled up and the valet welcomed us to the walt disney world dolphin. Wanted to know if we needed help with our bags and said the first day valet parking was free. We didn’t check in yet so we said we are going to see if we could check in so he just held the car out front for us. We went to the desk They took our info but we still couldn’t check in till 3. So we decided to drive to sea world. We got back in the car and I figured sea world was up I4 I didn’t have directions so we improvised. Everything down there is marked very very well we didn’t even get lost. We got to sea world parked the beast and went in. we tried to find someplace for lunch. My wife is allergic to beef and pork. Well let me say that sea world doesn’t have the best places to eat. We walk all over the park to find something my wife was able to eat. We ate and went and saw the shamu show. The show was great. We didn’t sit in the wet section but we got a ton of pictures. Then my wife tried to get me on the Atlantis ride. Ok I chickened out. I am not really a drop person. You can spin me twist me turn me but please don’t drop me. So we went and saw the penguins, and the fish etc. we were kind of upset because all the shows were at the same times so we didn’t get into many shows. So we walked around for a while got a drink, it decided to shower a little bit so we decided to go back to the hotel and relax for a while since it was just about check in time. Sea world was a beautiful park, we didn’t think it was worth the price food wasn’t that good, and the shows were all at the same time. My wife and me agreed that next time we go down we most likely wouldn’t go back to sea world. We got back to the hotel to find out that our credit card wouldn’t go through even though we had more then plenty on it. We also found out that our credit union only allows $1000 user per day. What a time to find that out. So the hotel was able to split it between my wife’s card and mine. The guy at the counter was very polite and worked everything out with us. So we got to our room. Me and my wife both liked the Beach motif of the hotel. The room was clean and had a perfect view of the boardwalk. It was now 5:30. We unpacked and my wife called the bank to double check everything. Everything was cool. We had 7:30 reservation for the luau (that we still had to pickup the tickets for). So we went downstairs to find where we pick up the bus. We walked all over until we finally asked someone in the candy store. We got the bus to the magic kingdom. It finally felt like we were there. Seeing the castle for the first time on our trip seemed just really cool, so we stole a kiss outside of the magic kingdom on our fist day. We then caught the monorail to the Polynesian hotel. We went to guest services got our tickets and went right over to luau cove. Since I got priority seating the first day I was able to we got seats right up front. The band was playing and it was so romantic. The food was fantastic. When they sat you down you could start right on the appetizer. They had coconut bread, a salad of some kind and something else, I forget I have to look it up. Then they got drinks and when everyone was seated they started the show. The show was fantastic, the dancers were great. Then they called up everyone celebrating a birthday to do the hula. Then they called all the honeymooners. We got to have a special dance. The guy in the chair next to us tried to take a picture but didn’t know how to use the camera. Then they served dinner while the show was going on. Dinner was great there was Hawaiian chicken steamed veggies, shrimp fried rice and BBQ spare ribs. It was sooooo good. The show continued and they announced dessert. Dessert were these little cakes one chocolate and one coconut. The came out on volcano trays smoking and I think spewing chocolate. The were sooo good. The show continued and at the end (after the fire guy) most everyone exited to the back of the cove. I figured we wern’t in a hurry so we went out the way we came in ( so I thought) the roped off the way you came in and routed everyone to the beach. Not many of us came this way. But it was almost 10 from the beach we had the most gorgeous view of the castle and everything. We stopped to take in the view and then the fireworks started. It was a very un-expected little piece of disney magic. So we stole a kiss on the beach while watching the fire works over the magic kingdom. It was fantastic. After the fireworks wee took our time getting to the monorail. We then went back to our hotel. We were both exhausted because we were up at 2am that morning for the plane and I made 7:30 reservation for breakfast the next morning.


Day 2

We woke up about 6:30 or so. Showered and was out by a little after 7. I gave her the second poem, which said to be at the wishing well at 10:30. I set up priority seating for 7:30 at the cape may café at the yacht and beach club. It was a buffet. They had everything imaginable including a full fruit bar. It was great and to my surprise it wasn’t that crowded. We ate got pictures with chip and dale. And mis got a picture of me with goofy. She said she is going to call it goofy meet goofy. We ate and hopped the bus at the beach club to the magic kingdom. We went in and it was after 9. So we wanted to pass the time a little before the wishing well. So on the bus someone told us that tonight was an e-ride night. So we went inside to guest services and got our e-ride tickets. we saw everyone heading over to splash mountain so we went and headed over to tomorrow land. To kill time we rode TTA. The ride was cool. Both my wife and me thought that they could do so much more with the ride just by adding more stuff along the way and making a part of it a dark ride. But it was cool though. After that we got on Buzz. It was only a 10 minute wait. My wife and me loved this ride. After that it was almost 10 we headed over to liberty square. The haunted mansion was a walk on. The ride like usual was great. But we both agreed that the ride could use some updated tricks. It was now 20 after 10 we started heading to the wishing well. On the way we got fast passes for peter pan and we stopped at the tinkerbell shop. We were looking for a mad tinkerbell for my mom. It was her favorite and hers is well naked. After the fire mom tried to clean what she could and tinkerbell cleaned good except all the color came off and just the skin color was left. So her tinkerbell is naked. So we wanted to get her a new one. So they had it and a lot of them. So we decided to come back at a later time to pick it up. So we got to the wishing well, and I took my wife’s picture behind it. She was supposed to find Aladdin’s lamp. I said to her you sure there is nothing back there. Then she found it. The note said by touching this lamp you have set me free. Go ride Winnie the pooh and look for you first wish near the big stuffed eyore. Attached were 2 fast passes for pooh. So we went and rode pooh. Now I did miss Mr. Toad but I thought pooh was so much better. The effects were better and the bouncing cart was great, and toward the end it really felt like you were floating. Pooh now is one of my new favorite rides that and buzz lightyear. After the ride we searched and searched and finally found the present next to the BIG eyore. The first wish was for something sweet, it had pooh honey and pooh candy. The next wish would be found in Santa’s sleigh. We went over to the Christmas shop and found the second wish. In the box was a key to a locker on main street and a note saying oh no I forgot to tell you not to open it I will catch it ad bring it to a locker on main street. We went to the lockers and the second wish was to bring Disney into your home. in the locker was a glass slipper Mickey candles, a CD and 2 Mickey wine glasses. Then it said for wish 3 is a romantic evening back at the hotel. Look for a bottle of wine when you get back to your room. My wife just loved it. We then went back to fantasy land and rode peter pan and then it’s a small world. It was going on noon so we decided since we have the e-ride night we could go back to the hotel and relax for a while. We went back to the hotel and found the wine basket. It had the bottle of wine and candies. It was great. We rested a little bit and discovered we needed a few things, wanted to get some water and stuff. So we decided to ask at the desk where we could find something like a local Wal-Mart or Kmart. They gave us directions so we hopped in the beast had lunch at cracker barrel. Got our provisions and got back to the hotel. We got back into the magic kingdom at about 4:30 or so. We went to adventure land, got a fast pass for the jungle cruise, we then went and rode pirates it was a walk on. After pirates we did the tiki room. I like the new themeing, but I think I prefer the old song. But it was different and diago was funny. I really enjoyed it. We then rode the jungle cruse. With fast pass it was a walk on. The boat in front of us lost forward control. So they were going to take another boat around to get them. But they were able to float backward. We moved out of the way and they took those people off and got the boat off the track. We were stuck no more then 3 or 4 minutes. That ride is still fun. After that we went through a few shops. And started heading to the castle. We both wanted to ride buzz lightyear again so we went over a rode buzz and the teacups. My wife wanted to watch the light parade. Now I showed her my favorite spot to watch the light parade. Near tinkerbells shop near the castle is a great view of the parade. We got tons of pictures and we didn’t have anybody in front of us. It was great. We had 9:35 reservations at Cinderella’s royal table in the castle to see the fire works. I thought it would be a wonderful capoff to a perfect day. We got there right on time. We got some pictures inside the gallery in the big throne. We sat there for over an hour waiting to be seated. We missed the fireworks. Now we could have lived with missing the fireworks but when we got up stairs that sat us in the farthest most corner. The food was excellent. My wife had the shrimp and I had the grand duke. Our server was pleasant. But since we were the last ones there we felt a little rushed. Ok we could have handled that. But then our waiter said since this is your honeymoon we usually give out Champaign glasses but since it’s late our allotment for the day is gone so we don’t have any for you. Ok I was upset with missing the fireworks but that took the cake. My wife and me both left upset. Our server shouldn’t have told us what we didn’t know what we were getting. So now that we missed half of e-night, we went and did the country bears, then buzz lightyear again. Then we took just a quiet romantic stroll down Main Street and left for the night. We were really upset. Not that we missed the fireworks but for the whole castle deal. We wanted it to be a romantic night in the castle and it wasn’t that it was bad it just wasn’t what we expected. We were bummed.

 

[Sherm00]

Day 3

We had reservations at Chef Mickey for breakfast. We decided to skip breakfast and sleep in. We slept to 10:00. We had a great morning, went down and caught the breakfast buffet at the coral café in the dolphin. The buffet was good. The pastries were yummy and they will make you any kind of eggs or omelet you want. We were talking about the night before and decided to go to guest services and complain. After breakfast we went to guest services. They called the castle and we spoke to the manager. The manager wanted us to come again as his guest. We were only able to do this on Wednesday so we accepted and got an 8:00 seating time. We then got into the beast and headed to universal. I have never been to universal before so I didn’t know what to expect. The parking area is really cool, although my wife and me commented on how people didn’t get the concept of the automatic walkway. People got on and stopped, sorry people that’s not the correct way, you walk with it and it gets you to your destination faster. City walk looked pretty cool. We really didn’t stop and see the citywalk. We went over to universal studios went in got a map. At this point we didn’t know that universal had something like Disney’s fast pass called express pass. The Hanna Barbara ride was only a 15 minute wait and it was like almost noon. We waited. The had a covered queue area with fans blowing cool water, I thought this was a great idea (though we found out this was the only ride with the sprayers working). This is where we discovered express pass my wife pointed out the sign to me. Ths ride was ok. We got on the ride(at first we didn’t realize it was a ride we thought it was a show). Me and my wife were a little cramped in the seats then they started the ride seeing all the other chairs moving made the ride seem less intense. Kids would love this ride. Despite that I love the Hanna Barbara characters and the movie was really cool. You felt like you were flying through a cartoon. We got out, I got my picture taken in the Flintstones mobile. Then we went to get our picture with scooby doo. We stood online, no first of all there wasn’t anyone there directing the people and kids don’t know how to follow the ropes. My niece loves scooby doo and we wanted to surprise her with a picture of my wife and me with scooby. Now there was a universal employee there taking pictures. We asked if he would use our camera to take a picture with us with scooby. He outright refused saying now I can take a picture and you can purchase it at the desk. Ok, we were saying to ourselves that that would never happen over at Disney. So My wife just took a picture of me with scooby. So we left and it started pouring out. Right across the way was Alfred hitchcock. It was a walk on. We went over and did that show. The show was cool but we thought it could have been organized a lot better. They herd you all into one room then everyone shoves into the theatre to watch a 5 minute show to shove you in another theatre. We thought that they could get twice the amount of people in if they had a retractable screen, added more seats and utilized both stages in the same manner. The show was pretty good though. After we got out it was still raining, so twister was close so we went to that, twister was also a walk on we went in and again herded everyone in a big room to watch a show about the movie twister. The pre-show was almost 10 minutes. Then they gave you the warning and they walked you into the ride and around to another holding area. We didn’t wait too long here. Then got into the main stage. They started the ride up it lasted maybe 3 or 4 minutes. It was very cool but way too short. The pre-show was longer then the actual ride. My wife and me both loved it but agreed it was short. It was still raining and we wanted to catch ghost busters, but we were told do to weather it wasn’t running. Kong ad a 25 minute wait and my wife said it wasn’t that great so we skipped that. Then we were lost, we didn’t know what to do where to go. Now I know the themeing of universal studios is sets from different movies, but nowhere where there signs telling you from what movie. Ok now it’s still raining, so we walk up and find the earthquake ride only had a 15 minute wait. So we waited on that. No universal has vending machines in it’s lines. This is ok except people were jumping lines to get to the machine. Then they have 1 garbage can, which at this point is over flowing with garbage, and nobody was cleaning it up. So we got in and again herded us like cattle into one room and did a preshow, when that was over herded everyone into another room and wow 2 preshows. Then they brought us into a theatre and low and behold a 3rd preshow. The show was good. Then we got onto the subway ride, they took us in and did the earthquake which was really cool still short but really cool. Jaws wasn’t operating because of the weather so we went over to men in black. The wait time for MIB and Back to the future were about 30 to 45 minutes. So we figured we would get a express pass for MIB and go ride something else. Now unlike Disney universal has 2 rides to a machine for express pass; and the machines are not right near the ride they are the farthest possible spot between the rides they are for, and they are not labeled. I stood 20 minutes in line to get and express pass IN THE RAIN. Meanwhile my wife was in the bathroom. When she came out she told me how filthy the bathrooms were. I went and yes they were filthy. Garbage needed to be changed and TP was needed in some stalls. At this point my wife and me were just getting aggravated at universal. So while we waited for the express pass to expire we decided to go take in a show and relax a bit. The horror makeup show was about to start so we headed over there. Again herded into a room before the show started, we waited about 10 minutes, really wasn’t bad and it wasn’t really that crowded. Now I am not going to spoil this show but we both really enjoyed this show. It was funny. If you ever go to universal see this show. After the show we walked back over to MIB put our stuff in a locker and got in the express line. They did their little MIB preshow thing which was pretty cool, and we got on line for MIB. The queue area of MIB is cool since it routs you through what looks like the MIB headquarters. We got al the way into the room where they were doing to dufas and doright training guide. And at this point we found out the ride broke down. We stood online for around a half hour before it came back online. I was ready to go find and shoot the person who wrote that dufas and doright video because they didn’t stop the video. And I said to my wife I waited 20 minutes on the express pass line to wait 30 minutes in line, lets see that’s 50 minutes. I could have just wated on the 30 minute regular line and would have been better off. Anyway we finally got on the ride. Now the ride was very uncomfortable. The seats were not made for the larger person. Anyway we got in and we couldn’t help but compare it to buzz lightyear. There were not as many targets, it was harder to score any points. And the way the seats were and the big spinout at the end made me a little sick. I was very unimpressed with it. So we went over and rode back to the future, we waited in the regular line. It was Only a 20-minute wait. We got on and they put 8 people in this little claustrophobic room to watch a quick video before getting into the car. The car was small for 8 people but we were fine. I like the little details on the car really was pretty cool. Then they take you up and start the ride. The ride was really cool and I enjoyed it. My wife was all black and blue after this ride because it rattled you around so much. By now it was getting late so we decided to head out and eat we walked the rest of the way around the park and decided to wait and eat at the Hard Rock. We only waited 10 minutes before heading upstairs to the non-smoking area. We waited only another 10 minutes to be seated. The food was good and the place was great. After that we headed back to the hotel for a romantic evening.







Day 4

We had reservations at khonas café at 8:00. We took the bus from the dolphin to the magic kingdom and then the monorail to the poly. We had hoped for some banana French toast. But for some reason it didn’t look that appetizing to us that morning. So my wife went with an omlet and I went with the big kahona. Breakfast was good but next time we thought we would try ohanas. After breakfast we got back on the monorail and switched at the TTC to epcot. We got to epcot and went in and did innovations west first. We like innoventions. We were in there for close to an hour playing with everything and sending postcards. We then went out the back way and headed over to the land. The boat ride was a walk on so we did that first. Then after that it was only 4 minutes to food rocks so we watched that next and then did the lion king show. 10 minutes wait after food rocks ended. We hit everything perfectly. We weren’t hungry yet so we headed out and went over to the living seas. It didn’t take long to get into the hydrolaters. The aquarium was cool but I think they need the ride system back. Also we ran to a few rude people here. Sometimes guests can be really rude. We were standing waiting for someone to move to watch one of the tanks. When they leave we get up there and then this mother pushes me and my wife aside and says “move my kid has to see”, so we get all angry and just leave and went upstairs to the bigger tanks. It was quieter up there. So that was on e of 3 rude people we ran into on our trip. Anyway we finish in there and head over to JIYI with figment. We got a fast pass for honey I shrunk the audience. And went a rode figment. I am glad they brought back figment but the ride isn’t as whimsical as the original. I don’t know when did everyone got so afraid of whimsy and fantasy. Just seems to me that a lot of the rehabs have to have a basis in reality and I disagree. The ride was cool and it seemed the one little spark song was a bit longer or was it the dream finder parts were cut. But it was good otherwise. Guess it will have to do. After figment we played around in imageworks for a while. Those 3d crystals they make are very cool. We waited there to send more postcards. By then our fast passes expired for honey I shrunk the audience. We did that show and it was cool. It was now about 12:30 we went to get fast passes for test track. It seems everybody that comes in goes and gets a fast pass for test track. So they were out by noon. So we figured we could come back on our hopper day and ride it. Mission space looks like it’s going to be cool. We passed it heading to universe of energy. That was a walk on. That is a long show.
It was about 1:20 when it was over so we wanted to go eat, we headed for world showcase. First stop Mexico. The lunch menu looked good and it wasn’t that expensive. So we decided to have lunch there. The food was out of this world. My wife spent 3 years in New Mexico and she said it was the type of food that was down there. The pavilion is one of the best and one of our favorites. We didn’t do the boat ride because we wanted to do a little more walking around world showcase. It was now about 2:30 we walked a ways around world showcase taking in the shops and seeing the shows my wife got tired of walking and wanted to rest. So we relaxed took some pictures then headed back to innovations to send more postcards and to do the other side. On the way back we went into ice station cool. The sodas are nasty. Except for this lemon one which we thought wasn’t bad. We headed out of there did innoventions completely and then went to do spaceship earth. At this time during the day the ride was a walk on. The ride was cool but missing all the AT&T logos. The communications area after the ride was cool. This is where we ran into more rude people. We were waiting for someone to move so I could see the hand, they left I was finishing talking to my wife and I hear this lady say, “there is an open one get it before they do”. The kid nearly bowls me over. So we just walked away and didn’t let it ruin our time. We then went into an interactive story room for a little bit an it was cool. After that we headed out. It was going for seven and we had reservations in Italy for 8. And the parade started like at 7:30. So we walked our way around the other half of world showcase looking at the stores etc. and just got bast the American pavilion and got front row seats for the parade. We saw the parade which was very cool. And got to alfrados at 8. Now if you have never eating here before I recommend it. The food is out of this world. The 2 of us rang up almost $90 there. It was 9:30 when we left. The place after wards was almost dead. We took a nice stroll out of the park via the rear entrance and hopped to boat back to our hotel. We both loved epcot.

 

[Sherm00]

Day 5


We were exhausted so we slept in. we had hopes the island of adventure was better then universal studios but decided to sleep in and relax (it was vacation after all). So we loafed around that morning and went down for breakfast. We went to the coral café in the hotel. And again the breakfast was awesome. After breakfast we went to IOA. When we went in the island theme looked really cool. We both really wanted to see sues landing so we headed there first. We thought to ourselves that the park was a lot better then universal studios are. The cat in the hat was a walk on at 11:30. That ride rocked. We took some pictures and headed to the ruin area. We stood online to get express passes for posidens fury waited 10 minutes. To our surprise the express pass expired in 10 minutes. We were both thirsty so we headed to get a soda. Sat and watched the fountain out side of the sinbad shows. The fountain talked and interacted well with the kids spitting water and stuff. It was really good. We went back and got on posidens fury. The show is a must do, it actually looks like you are heading into an ancient temple. And the effects are wonderful. After the show we headed toward Jurassic Park. We passed up dueling dragons because we are not coaster fans; the oak restaurant looks really cool. We headed into the Jurassic Park area. We walked around for 20 minutes to find the machines for the Jurassic Park river adventure. Got a express pass. It was like going on 1:00 so we decided to get something quick to eat. So we grabbed something quick in the Jurassic Park museum there. The food wasn’t that bad but the food area as terrible. They really need to higher more people to bus the tables. After lunch I went to the bathroom and found out someone puked in the bathroom and it was left for a while. The bathroom stunk. So we left and hit the bathrooms just before the ride. We got on the ride. Now I forced myself to ride it because I always heard the dinosaurs were awesome. Well all I saw was 1 dinosaur. We got in the boat. There was the Jurassic Park theme playing but no commentary on what was supposed to happen. We went up this hill into the ride went past the Jurassic park gates and we stopped in a queue under this rock we waited 5 minutes or so then slowly each boat moved to the building and up the ramp around the corner we saw 1 dinosaur then dropped. The ride was terrible. We were very disappointed. So we walk toward toon lagoon, and tried to find Popeye. We get some good pictures, we didn’t bother for a express pass. The wait was only 45 minutes and we couldn’t find the express pass machines. So we waited. Now when you are on line they sell things in line but only put in 1 garbage can. The can was overflowing with garbage and was very disgusting. We thought the que themeing was great but it’s the little things like the garbage that bothered us. You would expect such things at a 6 flags but not at a park that is supposed to be in competition with Disney. No matter how many times we been to Disney I have never seen the garbage coming out like that. Service wise Disney has them beat. Even to the guys in the que area. When we got on Popeye the people loading the ride didn’t smile, they just talked to each other and I herd one guy cursing. Not to the point of being really noticeable but still it was something that shouldn’t have been heard. Nobody was in character. Maybe it was just me but it didn’t feel right. Ok sorry about the rant. The ride itself was good. And we got really soaked. I chickened out of ripsaw falls so we headed to superhero land. Themeing was good. Music was too loud. We wanted to do spiderman. So we walked up and down 3 times before having to ask someone where the express pass booths were. It was 3:00 and all the passes were gone. We thought is it was spaced out like at Disney then there would be some left. See what we like to do is walk through the park and experience each area, we don’t like to jump from area to area just to do the rides. To me it seemed that the whole park was ride oriented. If I Wanted to do spiderman I would have had to get a pass as soon as I got in did started to go through the park just to backtrack and go on spiderman. So we looked and it was over an hour wait. It was about 3:30 and we weren’t to thrilled. No we did enjoy ourselves but we didn’t get that relaxing feeling that we do at a Disney park. And it all comes down to the little things. The service. I can’t quite explain it. So we just left. I took a few pictures of the gate on the way out. And realized we only have 2 rolls left. So we went back to the hotel changed and went to Wal-Mart for some film. Walmart was packed. We were there over an hour just for film. That’s when we ran into this nice gentleman we were talking about universal and disney and it turns out he worked at Disney doing purchasing for the Canada pavilion. And we had a long talk about service and the differences between Disney and universal. We got our film and went back to the hotel. We decided to try to go eat at spoodles. I went up to the bedroom to drop off the stuff and set my wife up a little surprise. I got her a pair of earrings that she wanted. We didn’t drink the wine I got her from the magic kingdom scavenger hunt. So I put that on ice and put the earrings on the pillow. I came down stairs and we went to the restaurant. We got there and they had closed the restaurant for a convention that was in town. It was late and we didn’t want anything too expensive and we didn’t want cafeteria stuff at tubbies. So we decided to go to chilis. The food wasn’t good and the service was terrible. My ribs came out so over cooked you couldn’t get any meat off them. It was just bad. So we got back to the hotel and the surprise just made her day. It was a good night.


Day 6


We got up and headed out for animal kingdom. Now I think everyone underrates this park big time. We had a better time here then we did at universal. We got there at 9:00 and got right on the safari ride. My wife took tons of pictures on this ride. We are animal buffs. This ride was really cool. I got the middle because my wife really wanted to sit on the end. After that ride we went and got fast passes for it’s tough to be a bug and went and had a brunch at the rainforest café. The themeing is great but we weren’t to thrilled with the food. Downtown Disney is much better. After we ate our fast passes were starting. So we walked over to dinoland and got a fast pass for dinosaur. Then we went a did the bug show. It’s tough to be a bug is really a cool show. It’s a must do. After the show we were going to do primeval whirl. But the carts didn’t look too comfortable for 2 large people. So we just skipped it. We did dinosaur and it was really cool. I thought the needed to tone the ride down a little but my wife thought I was nuts. The ride is really fun and definitely on our must do list for the next time we go down. We then went to Asia and did the trail and took pictures of the animals. My wife was terrified of the bats so we passed them. After that we were going to do the rapids but decided we didn’t want to get wet yet and we would come back. So we went to Africa and were going to go to rafikis planet watch and conservation station. That’s where we ran into the rudest person of all. We went got on the train no this oriental lady jumps pass us and hops on the train. Puts her daughter on one end of the bench and she stand on the other and proceeds to tell us not to sit here she needs to save it for her family. So we said then let us pass and you can have the bench. She said no I need to save the seats. The CM tried to tell her to move down but she wouldn’t listen. And she proceeded to elbow my wife in the stomach so hard she lost her breath. So at this point we just got off the train. The CM’s couldn’t talk to that women so they had to let her go to the station. Since there was only 2 CM’s at the station they couldn’t leave but told us where to go to talk to someone and have my wife looked at. My wife said she was fine and didn’t want to go to the first aid area so we talked to another cm just out side of the ride who just went to get a manager for us. We stood in a nice cool spot with a fan. The CM came back and said someone will be right her. He then said that since he has been there is has seen the best of people and the worst of people. We asked about the pin trading. Our next time there that’s what we are going to do pin trade. So then the manager comes up and takes us to the side made sure my wife was ok and we explained the situation. She said that we could press charges but that’s not what we wanted to do we just wanted to let them know they have someone that rude in the park. Just that made us feel better. She called security at rafikis and said she was going over there and see if she can find her and watch her for any more rough housing. So my wife and me decided to leave and go to MGM. We later we find out that the lady did it again on the way back and was ultimately thrown out of the park. The manager called our room that night to make sure everything was ok. Anyway after the “incident” we went back to the hotel relaxed and went to MGM. The BIG hat is a keeper. It’s seems more like a “Disney” studio then an MGM studio. And you can see it from a distance. The Hollywood style still works. And I love the studios backstage themeing. Where some areas make you feel like you are backstage. Anyway we went up to the hat and got some pictures. We then got a fast pass for millionaire then came back to ride the great movie ride. Eyore and pooh were there for pictures. So we get online and my wife gets her picture taken with eyore. We then rode the great movie ride. Then went and did Muppets 3d and came back to do millionaire. Millionaire was really cool. I didn’t make the board but maybe next time. After that we walked around, went on star tours, we had 7:00 reservations for 50’s prime time. This is a great place to eat. Our waitress wasn’t too into the role but on the table behind us we had 2 waiter and waitress that were just so into the role they were hysterical. We had a blast. By this time it was after 8 and we decided to make an early night. We figured we could come back to do tower of terror tomorrow on our hopper day. My wife wasn’t feeling that good and just needed some rest. So we went back for a quiet evening.

 

[Sherm00]

Day 7

We got up and it was storming out like you wouldn’t believe. You could see the thunder bolts in the sky from the hotel. So we figured what the heck we had ponchos, so we relaxed a bit in the morning and headed out. We went over to the swan to have breakfast in the Garden Grove. The Buffet there wasn’t as big as the one in the coral café in the dolphin but it was still good. We decided to make lunch reservation for the SCI fi. We went to guest service and made reservations for 1 I think. So we threw on our ponchos and got the boat to epcot. By the time we got there it stopped raining. So we headed for test track. Test track was closed due to the weather. I talked to the CM who told me it takes 2 hours to bring the ride online and to make sure all safety checks are done. So we headed to imageworks to send a few more postcards. After that we headed to MGM and found out that tower of terror was also closed due to sever thunderstorms. It started to clear up and we headed to the SCI fi. SCI fi was cool. The food wasn’t bad either for a quick burger and a milk shake. The milkshakes are awesome. We told them it was our honeymoon. They sat us in the back seat of one of the cars, then the waiter brought over a sign to put on the back of the car saying it was our honeymoon. It was just really cute. After the SCI fi we caught the monsters inc. characters for a picture. On the way out it started to pour thunder lightning it came down so hard by the time we walked from the hat to where we catch the boat we were soaked. So we both stand at the boat dock waiting for the boat getting even more wet and feeding the ducks. We were soaked. So we went back to the hotel changed and headed over to the magic kingdom. By then the rain had stopped again. We went in mailed a few postcards from the magic kingdom, took part in a survey and hopped the train to toon town. We went through that huge shop in toon town. Went through Mickey and mini’s house. Got some good pictures. Mickey was moved to a different area because the place where he sat sprung a leak from all the rain. That night we did pooh again, snow white, buzz light year a couple of times. We went through the Christmas shop and then went and got my fudge at the candy store (yummy). It was then time for our 2nd dinner at the castle. As you remember the less then satisfied time the first time. We got there and we told the lady at the front area everything. So again we were in the waiting room half-hour or so. It seemed that people that came in after us were getting seated. But that’s ok we were hoping for a window seat. Then they had a spontaneous character. Princess jasmine came in for photos with the kids waiting to get in. It was really cool. Finally they call us. We go up. They give us center window, the best seat n the house. We got our Champaign glasses and they even changed the menu slightly so we could have something else to order (don’t know if that was done just for us but it seemed cool) we watched the fireworks and it was really romantic. After dinner we wanted to tall the manager that everything was wonderful. So before we could say anything the manager came out and gave us our meal on the house. Or check was like $90. It was a perfect night. so we started to head out walked right threw the castle, when we got to the end of main street we just stopped and watched the castle. I said to my wife, look, you can’t help falling in love all over again right here. That night wasn’t an e-night so the park emptied quick and we just stood there and stole one last kiss on Main Street. We walked out and caught the bus back to the hotel for the night. We get back to the hotel and my wife asks for a drink. I open a hotel glass and give her a drink. She said where is my nice wineglass use that. They were gone. We looked all over and couldn’t find them. We called security and they send up IVAN. Really nice guy thick Russian accents huge and bald. We nickname him Ivan the terrible. Anyway they only things missing were the glasses so we thought the maid may have thought they were room services. Any way he took the report. And said they will investigate. I was just so upset not because the glasses were expensive they weren’t that expensive but it was a gift and a souvenir. Anyway to make a long story short they were going to buy them and send them to me. Ok not a big deal. So we had our last night there.


Day 8 last day 


Last day we get up and start to pack. We had a few wet close and wet sneakers that we couldn’t pack wet. So I took them and brought them down to the laundry to dry. While that was drying I hopped in the game room. I one a stuffed dog in the claw machine played a few games. When the laundry was done I folded it and brought it upstairs. My wife had everything packed. We double checked everything and checked out. We got in the beast and headed to this orange place we saw on 192. My dad loves fresh oranges. So we found out that you can order them online. I don’t have the URL now I will post it later. You can order online and have them shipped fresh. Then we gassed the beast and We then went to IHOP for breakfast and went to downtown Disney. We saw the new toy story store which is really amazing. They have a build your own Mr. Potato head area, where you get a box with a potato head and you get whatever you can fit in the box. We staid mainly in the market place area, we saw the glasses that were stolen in the pantry store so we bought 2 more. So when the hotel sends us 2 we would have a set of 4 for when company comes over. If ya live close you can send me an instant message me. My AOL IM id is shermatron. Any way we got some souvenirs and a pooh bag to hold it all. We got pictures of the Lego art and stopped and had a smoothie for lunch. It was almost 4:00 so it was time to head for the airport. The rest is history.

We had such a blast. Next time we would skip sea world and only do 1 day at universal but all day. Sadly we are most likely not going to be able to go down in the next year or so. Our next goal is to get out of our apartment, get a house and start a family. I can’t wait to get back.

 

[monorail256]

Very Nice Trip Report! I am very impressed. That has to be the best/longest one I have ever saw on WDWMAGIC. While I did not read the whoel thing cus that would take forever.. Im sure you had a great time! Thanks for posting it! :sohappy:

 

[DisneyCP2000]

I'm so happy that things worked out in the long run! I'm so glad to hear that the cast members did all they could to make you're trip as memberable as possible (especially at the Castle!!!!). I'm especially glad to hear that the lady who elbowed your wife got tossed out of the parks!!!!! You won't believe how happy I am to hear that. :lol: We just don't need people like that.

Glad to hear that you had a MAGICAL TIME IN WALT DISNEY WORLD! :king:

 

[DMC-12]

quote: although my wife and me commented on how people didn’t get the concept of the automatic walkway. People got on and stopped, sorry people that’s not the correct way, you walk with it and it gets you to your destination faster.
____________________________________________________


Well, the rules are the same for an esclator. Stand to the right, and walk to the left. I deal with this issue every day at the train station downtown here.

If people are in that big of a hurry.....take the strairs...and or...walk..but on the regular sidewalk..not the moving one.

Great trip report...I'm working on reading day 5 and 6 now.

 

[k9kris]

LLLLLOOOOONNNNNGGGGG!!!!!

 

[bearboysnc]

Thank you for sharing your trip!

I hate those trip reports that talk about 2 rides, and say they had a great time. I WANNA HEAR ABOUT ALL OF IT!

Congradulations!

 

[Sherm00]

hope everyone likes it. I forgot to mension a few things like when we got out of muppets 3d we got pictures with kermit the frog and ms. piggy. and when we were getting on the safari ride in animal kingdom they have this video playing in the queue with a guy that looks like brian fellows from saturday night live. I we laughed for hours on that one.