First of all, I'd like to share some non-Disney stories about my vacation. Most of you will find this story very interesting but if you want to get right on with the Disney part, skip ahead to the next indented paragraph.
I started my vacation with a night stay at the Residence Inn in downtown Orlando. It was a seemingly nice hotel until we got in our room...
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/6889/hpim0351ig8.jpg
Yep, that's a big, black wig that fell out of the sheets of my bed. But wait, there's more! We then found a big ole lizard crawling on the inside of our window but then disappeared. But wait, there's more! I pull out the couch bed and there are stains all over it. Not the normal sweat stains but other bodily fluids. Nice, eh? But wait, there's more! At 10 PM, tired and covered in sweat, I go to take my shower when, unexpectedly, the hotel cuts all power including all lights in and outside of the hotel. Phones don't work and the hotel managers, who knew about this power problem 3 hours prior to it, did not provide any flashlights or anything of that nature. Power returned around 1 AM and I recieved the room free of chrage. The staff was friendly and apolegetic but did not make up for the terrible nightmare that this hotel provided, free of charge. Next we had a week-long Royal Caribbean Cruise to the Caribbean. The cruise was quite disappointing compared to Disney but was a good value. The service and activities just did not come close to that of the Disney Cruise.
On to Disney.
The polynesian had a minor amount of construction on the front of the main building (maybe just painting and fixing windows). The construction was barely noticeable. After the other part of our vacation, it was nice to settle in a clean room with friendly service. Captain Cook's was looking nice, but the new self-service counters seemed to confuse some people.
Magic Kingdom-Beautiful as always, The Comedy Club was a hoot and Dream along with Mickey was a lot of fun. The watch store's facade on Main Street was being refurbed and Main Street altogether could use some new lightbulbs. Space Mountain is becoming a little dated. The track was rough and a few of the projections had cracks running through them. The ride was evacuated and lights were turned on. Here's a quick pic:
The cars on Buzz Lightyear need a paint job and the TTA could be cleaned. Astro Orbitors, contrary to refurb dates, was open. Barnstormers, however, was closed for a "coat of paint."
The Haunted Mansion was being worked on during the day. Painters could be seen in plain sight and new awnings were being set up. It seemed like half the park was closed with this attraction gone.
Epcot-Spaceship Earth looks twice as big and is now the biggest structure in the park hands down (just deal with the pun). The crane was folded neatly out of guests' view by the 24th and all the stars were gone, leaving little metal spikes all over the sphere. Siemen's post-show involved a 3D surgery station where you use a joystick to assemble a body and a neat racing game. The fountainview cafe is now an Edy's ice cream parlor, nopics, sorry. All the sodas except one were at Club Cool.
The Seas with Nemo was fantastic, one of my new favorite rides. Living With The Land was nice without the speaker and more interesting. I caught a glimpse of Soarin's preshow game which involved flying a bird around a rainforest (similar to a 3D racing game). Imagination was empty but I felt like a change was coming to this ride soon. The ride's concept is great but was just not carried out well. Oh well.
The Beaker and Bunsen mobile laboratory was making daily performances.
Canada was closed (contrary to rumors of an opening on the 25th) and a CM mention a possible opening on the 4th. Japan and China were still under construction. Norway was empty as well as Mexico, which was fantastic and not as obnoxious as I had originally thought.
Here's a neat pic of SSE before the crane was down, I might end up photoshopping this one.
MGM-Construction was happening under the hat and by Star Tours, probably for the new stage. Air Conditioning was not working on GMR (talk about hot!) but the ride was working great. Not much else happening here. The Narnia exhibit was missing the White Witch and was kind of dull without her.
Also, it was a real pain to walk around the park with the Toy Story/Pixar Place construction. You have to walk around the entire park to get a distance of 50 feet.
Animal Kingdom-Nemo is amazing. Take the time to see it. Tusker House is closed and therefore eating at AK is nearly imposssible.That's basically it.
A few more things: Go to MK on days of Pirates and Princesses early in the morning. It was basically empty. EMH was swamped, don't bother with it. I also won a night in Cinderella Castle. Yeah right. I did win a nice lanyard and pin set when coming off of SM and also won a few Magic Moments certificates. Well, that's all for now. TTFN, tata for now.
Sorry about the lenglth and the scatterbrained organization.
I started my vacation with a night stay at the Residence Inn in downtown Orlando. It was a seemingly nice hotel until we got in our room...
Yep, that's a big, black wig that fell out of the sheets of my bed. But wait, there's more! We then found a big ole lizard crawling on the inside of our window but then disappeared. But wait, there's more! I pull out the couch bed and there are stains all over it. Not the normal sweat stains but other bodily fluids. Nice, eh? But wait, there's more! At 10 PM, tired and covered in sweat, I go to take my shower when, unexpectedly, the hotel cuts all power including all lights in and outside of the hotel. Phones don't work and the hotel managers, who knew about this power problem 3 hours prior to it, did not provide any flashlights or anything of that nature. Power returned around 1 AM and I recieved the room free of chrage. The staff was friendly and apolegetic but did not make up for the terrible nightmare that this hotel provided, free of charge. Next we had a week-long Royal Caribbean Cruise to the Caribbean. The cruise was quite disappointing compared to Disney but was a good value. The service and activities just did not come close to that of the Disney Cruise.
On to Disney.
The polynesian had a minor amount of construction on the front of the main building (maybe just painting and fixing windows). The construction was barely noticeable. After the other part of our vacation, it was nice to settle in a clean room with friendly service. Captain Cook's was looking nice, but the new self-service counters seemed to confuse some people.
Magic Kingdom-Beautiful as always, The Comedy Club was a hoot and Dream along with Mickey was a lot of fun. The watch store's facade on Main Street was being refurbed and Main Street altogether could use some new lightbulbs. Space Mountain is becoming a little dated. The track was rough and a few of the projections had cracks running through them. The ride was evacuated and lights were turned on. Here's a quick pic:
The cars on Buzz Lightyear need a paint job and the TTA could be cleaned. Astro Orbitors, contrary to refurb dates, was open. Barnstormers, however, was closed for a "coat of paint."
The Haunted Mansion was being worked on during the day. Painters could be seen in plain sight and new awnings were being set up. It seemed like half the park was closed with this attraction gone.
Epcot-Spaceship Earth looks twice as big and is now the biggest structure in the park hands down (just deal with the pun). The crane was folded neatly out of guests' view by the 24th and all the stars were gone, leaving little metal spikes all over the sphere. Siemen's post-show involved a 3D surgery station where you use a joystick to assemble a body and a neat racing game. The fountainview cafe is now an Edy's ice cream parlor, nopics, sorry. All the sodas except one were at Club Cool.
The Seas with Nemo was fantastic, one of my new favorite rides. Living With The Land was nice without the speaker and more interesting. I caught a glimpse of Soarin's preshow game which involved flying a bird around a rainforest (similar to a 3D racing game). Imagination was empty but I felt like a change was coming to this ride soon. The ride's concept is great but was just not carried out well. Oh well.
The Beaker and Bunsen mobile laboratory was making daily performances.
Canada was closed (contrary to rumors of an opening on the 25th) and a CM mention a possible opening on the 4th. Japan and China were still under construction. Norway was empty as well as Mexico, which was fantastic and not as obnoxious as I had originally thought.
Here's a neat pic of SSE before the crane was down, I might end up photoshopping this one.
MGM-Construction was happening under the hat and by Star Tours, probably for the new stage. Air Conditioning was not working on GMR (talk about hot!) but the ride was working great. Not much else happening here. The Narnia exhibit was missing the White Witch and was kind of dull without her.
Also, it was a real pain to walk around the park with the Toy Story/Pixar Place construction. You have to walk around the entire park to get a distance of 50 feet.
Animal Kingdom-Nemo is amazing. Take the time to see it. Tusker House is closed and therefore eating at AK is nearly imposssible.That's basically it.
A few more things: Go to MK on days of Pirates and Princesses early in the morning. It was basically empty. EMH was swamped, don't bother with it. I also won a night in Cinderella Castle. Yeah right. I did win a nice lanyard and pin set when coming off of SM and also won a few Magic Moments certificates. Well, that's all for now. TTFN, tata for now.
Sorry about the lenglth and the scatterbrained organization.
