We had such a wonderful time. We have never been to WDW during the summer months so going to celebrate the 4th was great! Though it was on the ''warm'' side at times. :dazzle:
But here goes my first trip report:
We started off by going to Animal Kingdom first. Love Animal Kingdom. Luckily it wasn't too busy and was able to basically walk on to many of the rides with little wait, even EE wasn't that long of a line. We were able to ride 2 times during our time there!
We saw quite a few animals during the safari expedition. There were even a few baby elephants out and about playing in the wading pond. They were absolutely adorable!! It reminded me of that one scene from the Tarzan animated movie. They were wrapping their trunks around and splashing. They were sitting on their rumps even....kinda reminded me of little kids playing patty cake
Now one thing I noticed that made me sad was that the cheetahs as well as even a couple of black leopards were missing.....were they moved? maybe??
Also noticed that the area that has the off beaten path behind the Tree of Life ( that walkway between Africa and Asia) has been turned into a character meeting area and the smoking section has been removed.
Aside from the heat Animal Kingdom rocked. Mornings are not as busy as thought it would have been.
Our next stop was Epcot. Epcot was busy busy busy!! Many tour groups from Brazil. And boy were there a lot. We saw every color of the rainbow along with different shades of blues and oranges and reds! We tried to get on Test Track and at first the line was so long we gave up. So my ds went to try and go on Soarin' and well, that didn't work either. But we did go on Living with the Land. That was great. I do however miss a live person doing the spiel. I know it has been that way for a while just miss a human up there. Saw that nine pound lemon and that was so cool. We didn't stay at EPCOT for too long cuz of all the peeps everywhere and all. We did do our tradition of riding SSE before leaving though. Love the change while descending on the screen though. Much better than it was a year ago. In my opinion though the narrator...name escapes me.....doesn't ''fit'' though. I miss the previous narrator. He was MUCH better. Now, on to MGM ( yeah MGM will always be that to me)
MGM wasn't too bad actually. The longest we had to wait in line for anything was of course the most awesomest ride..TSM! That is the most coolest ride. We rode it twice and had a blast! I can so understand the wait time ...and is actually worth it. I waited for Luxo Jr. to come out and he never did. Not sure if he is on a schedule or just does pop appearances.
Now, the depressing news....well, to us it was depressing as well as stupid....part of tradition at MGM is to go on the Backlot Tour. Well we board the tram and to our surprise.....it is now all automated!! The spiel is horrible and unlike before...when the cast member does the ''oh no'' of being on a ''live set''...instead of getting the surprise of entering a ''live set'' the spiel now tells you what is going to happen! No surprises no nothing! Though there is still a cast member up in the front tram they do nothing but sit there like a bump on a log. So out of curiosity when we got back to the drop off area I asked a cast member about it and to voice my opinion. Well, she too was upset when they changed the spiel but stated that apparently too many cast members were forgetting their lines and that apparently visitors were complaining that some cast members were better than others , blablabla..... But afterwards when we walked thru the AFI updates were done....at least from when we went a year ago...There is this HUGE display of Davy Jones' organ...it is great...really realistic .....and there was even an addition made from Star Wars Phantom Menance--Darth Maul. That was cool too. Was able to ride RnRc a couple of times and of course ToT. The Tower of Terror que was in full effect with the fog and smoke! It was creepy but yet so cool. RnRc was playing more of Aerosmith's songs than I have ever heard before in the que too.
Aside from the crowds which du'oh it is the holiday so to be expected.... MGM was great. We stayed there to watch the 4th of July fireworks because we didn't think we would make it time back to Magic Kingdom in time nor be able to get in. The fireworks and the music was great at MGM. I have never seen the main entrance road packed with peeps everywhere...even sitting in the middle of the ''road''. The cast members did do a great job though controlling the area making sure that folks didn't cross the tape more or less leaving room for folks to get by and around.
Now on to Magic Kingdom.
By the time we got to Magic Kingdom the majority of the crowds were leaving and boy was there a lot of folks!! And yes we rode the monorail that nite from TTC to Magic Kingdom and will ride it again with no reservations.
Magic Kingdom was actually peaceful for it being the 4th of July. It bummed seeing Space Mountain all lonely and all. It was calling my name....I was almost tempted to try and sneak a peak...at what I have no idea...but ...
oh well. We did the areas where the refurbs are going on but I really think they did a good job of ''blending'' and all. But anyways we rode BtRm 2x in a row and right when we got off the second time as we were leaving the darn thing broke down. We kept hearing the spiel that there '' was a slow train ahead''.....that cute spiel it does. Later we over heard folks being told that the ride was shut down for the nite due to tech problems. We only spent maybe 2 hrs at MK. Just enough time to hit our fav rides (well except for one..lol)....in due time. At least now that we live in the area finally we can hit it when it opens up. lol
All in all we had a great time spending the 4th with Mickey!!
But here goes my first trip report:
We started off by going to Animal Kingdom first. Love Animal Kingdom. Luckily it wasn't too busy and was able to basically walk on to many of the rides with little wait, even EE wasn't that long of a line. We were able to ride 2 times during our time there!
We saw quite a few animals during the safari expedition. There were even a few baby elephants out and about playing in the wading pond. They were absolutely adorable!! It reminded me of that one scene from the Tarzan animated movie. They were wrapping their trunks around and splashing. They were sitting on their rumps even....kinda reminded me of little kids playing patty cake
Now one thing I noticed that made me sad was that the cheetahs as well as even a couple of black leopards were missing.....were they moved? maybe??Also noticed that the area that has the off beaten path behind the Tree of Life ( that walkway between Africa and Asia) has been turned into a character meeting area and the smoking section has been removed.
Aside from the heat Animal Kingdom rocked. Mornings are not as busy as thought it would have been.
Our next stop was Epcot. Epcot was busy busy busy!! Many tour groups from Brazil. And boy were there a lot. We saw every color of the rainbow along with different shades of blues and oranges and reds! We tried to get on Test Track and at first the line was so long we gave up. So my ds went to try and go on Soarin' and well, that didn't work either. But we did go on Living with the Land. That was great. I do however miss a live person doing the spiel. I know it has been that way for a while just miss a human up there. Saw that nine pound lemon and that was so cool. We didn't stay at EPCOT for too long cuz of all the peeps everywhere and all. We did do our tradition of riding SSE before leaving though. Love the change while descending on the screen though. Much better than it was a year ago. In my opinion though the narrator...name escapes me.....doesn't ''fit'' though. I miss the previous narrator. He was MUCH better. Now, on to MGM ( yeah MGM will always be that to me)
MGM wasn't too bad actually. The longest we had to wait in line for anything was of course the most awesomest ride..TSM! That is the most coolest ride. We rode it twice and had a blast! I can so understand the wait time ...and is actually worth it. I waited for Luxo Jr. to come out and he never did. Not sure if he is on a schedule or just does pop appearances.
Now, the depressing news....well, to us it was depressing as well as stupid....part of tradition at MGM is to go on the Backlot Tour. Well we board the tram and to our surprise.....it is now all automated!! The spiel is horrible and unlike before...when the cast member does the ''oh no'' of being on a ''live set''...instead of getting the surprise of entering a ''live set'' the spiel now tells you what is going to happen! No surprises no nothing! Though there is still a cast member up in the front tram they do nothing but sit there like a bump on a log. So out of curiosity when we got back to the drop off area I asked a cast member about it and to voice my opinion. Well, she too was upset when they changed the spiel but stated that apparently too many cast members were forgetting their lines and that apparently visitors were complaining that some cast members were better than others , blablabla..... But afterwards when we walked thru the AFI updates were done....at least from when we went a year ago...There is this HUGE display of Davy Jones' organ...it is great...really realistic .....and there was even an addition made from Star Wars Phantom Menance--Darth Maul. That was cool too. Was able to ride RnRc a couple of times and of course ToT. The Tower of Terror que was in full effect with the fog and smoke! It was creepy but yet so cool. RnRc was playing more of Aerosmith's songs than I have ever heard before in the que too.
Aside from the crowds which du'oh it is the holiday so to be expected.... MGM was great. We stayed there to watch the 4th of July fireworks because we didn't think we would make it time back to Magic Kingdom in time nor be able to get in. The fireworks and the music was great at MGM. I have never seen the main entrance road packed with peeps everywhere...even sitting in the middle of the ''road''. The cast members did do a great job though controlling the area making sure that folks didn't cross the tape more or less leaving room for folks to get by and around.
Now on to Magic Kingdom.
By the time we got to Magic Kingdom the majority of the crowds were leaving and boy was there a lot of folks!! And yes we rode the monorail that nite from TTC to Magic Kingdom and will ride it again with no reservations.
Magic Kingdom was actually peaceful for it being the 4th of July. It bummed seeing Space Mountain all lonely and all. It was calling my name....I was almost tempted to try and sneak a peak...at what I have no idea...but ...
oh well. We did the areas where the refurbs are going on but I really think they did a good job of ''blending'' and all. But anyways we rode BtRm 2x in a row and right when we got off the second time as we were leaving the darn thing broke down. We kept hearing the spiel that there '' was a slow train ahead''.....that cute spiel it does. Later we over heard folks being told that the ride was shut down for the nite due to tech problems. We only spent maybe 2 hrs at MK. Just enough time to hit our fav rides (well except for one..lol)....in due time. At least now that we live in the area finally we can hit it when it opens up. lolAll in all we had a great time spending the 4th with Mickey!!
