WDW - Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. – My August 2011 Trip Report

WDW - Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. – An August 2011 Trip Report

Welcome to my trip report! First, about the title. Reading the WDW boards lately one would think that Disney World was coming apart at the seams; Overrun by vicious gangs of Brazilian tour groups, Pop Warner boys and cheerleaders. Filled with broken down, outdated rides run by snarly cast members. The resorts infested by bedbugs, nasty housekeepers, and moldy shower curtains. The Restaurants serving up Dogfood burgers and steaks served with the leather hides still attached. The fireworks shows reduced to open fire pits and a few boxes of sparklers.

To be totally honest and sarcasm aside (kinda), I was really getting concerned about this trip. I had gone to great lengths and compromise ( see my Pre-trip report) to make this trip a reality. Now I was worried that once my family would see first hand the crumbling vestige that was once our favorite place on earth; this would seal this trip’s fate as our last one to the World. Well, I’m happy to say, with photos as proof – the rumors of Walt Disney World’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

First Day and intro to our family;

Our countdown was over. The paper chain in Toni’s room that started at day 178 was now down to day zero. It was 4 in the morning on August 6th and I woke up Toni and we tore up that last chain and started to get ready for our trip. By 4:30, Toni and her brother Sterg, were ready and waiting.

I have a good friend that happens to own a limo business, so we hired him to drive us to Philadelphia International. The limo came at 5:00am. This is my wife Val and my oldest child, Alexandra, getting spoiled in the limo.

Sterg and I on the other seat…

While Toni caught a few z’s.

Everything was going fine. We were making great time on the Turnpike until we were detoured off of it an exit too soon. Unfortunately, this was only the first of our several delays that morning.

 

[fractal]

Space Mountain with its many blind dips and quick turns was not as fun for me @ Midnight as it was 12 hours before. The teenagers loved it though. With Space Mountain done we accomplished our goal and started to head out. I was really petered out and was looking forward to laying down in my comfy BC bed. It was at this point that Sterg said something that was worse than sharp fingernails slowly scratching a blackboard.

"Let's do Stitch!"

"NO WAY!" I said. "Please, there's no wait". I finally decided to let them go while I dug my mini-tripod out of my backpack. I made my way to the bridge past the entrance to Tomorrowland and took some pictures. I felt a bit self-conscience standing in the middle of the pathway so I moved to the side. Still a "newbie".

Next I wandered down to the castle;

And finally the road to my Beach Club mattress...

Alex and Sterg found me after the "Great Escape". I was now running on empty. Another great day at Walt Disney World that began and ended in the Magic Kingdom. Can't ask for much more than that.

NEXT UP - Moving Day and some rain on our parade.

 

[<3caseyscorner]

LOVING THE REPORT!! CANT WAIT FOR MORE!!:sohappy::sohappy:

 

[disneyrcks]

Just wanted to say I am really enjoying your TR and pics! Looking forward to more

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Thanks! Manual is a lot of trial and error. I spent some time before the trip taking pictures of things around the house in different light and changing shutter speeds, etc. Digital cameras make that more manageable and affordable than film. Good luck in your journey!

Thanks! I'll be posting a trip report when I get back so we'll see how those pictures come out! And question: about how long did it take you to compose the shot then take it? Not too long? I was just curious about it. Finished reading the book yesterday and can't wait to start fiddling around with my camera.

I agree with you on ToT! My favorite ride as well. And HS at night is just so beautiful!

Seeing your pictures of Splash Mountain got me excited to ride it in Sept since the past 3 years it's been without water in January So it's been awhile!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[Matt and Kelly]

Great picture!

Awesome trip report. This has me thinking of my trip report already and we don't leave for another week!

 

[silver1113]

What a perfect day. You got to spend bonding time with one daughter and then got to do the same with the other two. Makes for lasting memories and wonderful times.

 

[BoardwalkGlenn]

Finally we were seated and Val and I immediately ordered this - a giant margarita with a bottle of Corona throw in for good measure...

I don't like margaritas or Caronas. But I want this more than anything else at WDW!

I looooove margaritas but am not a fan of Corona and I would definitely give this a try! WOW!:sohappy:

 

[mrerk]

Great job on the PTR and the TR. Looking forward to your opinion of the BCV. I think you'll love it.

 

[mamamouse]

oh mr fractal LOL you've got me living in the moment again n I almost shed a tear,i'll never tell,i thought the last report was good i'm gonna haver serious withdrawals when this one gets done

 

[fractal]

cool I think I'll have to try T-rex sometime,actually because of your views on sanaa I called yesterday and booked a lunch,I was shocked we got in because we're only 31 days away from arrival and I thought it would be a shot in the dark,so awesome!!!!

T-Rex is fun, but don't expect a quiet night out. I'm glad you got in Sanaa. I think you will really enjoy it.

Great update! As a single mom to a 9 year old boy, I TOTALLY know how you feel with the whole bathroom anxiety b/c I am the same WAY!!! I usually try to find a family restroom so that I can just stand outside the door and not have to worry about anyone else being in there with him, but in instance where there is not one, I am literally pacing in from of the mens room waiting for him to come out. If he's not out in less then 5 I am screaming for him at the door! :ROFLOL: I am SO thankful I have my brother and cousin coming with us this week to Disney... One less thing I have to worry about this trip! :lol:

We LOVE T-Rex. We have eaten there twice so far and both time I thought the food was delish. Highly recommend the frozen mojito too!! YUM!!! I think the atmosphere alone is worth a trip there!!!

Your brother and cousin will defintitely take away that anxiety. T-Rex is CRAZY! In a good way.

If you go, take the time to visit both Kidani Village and Jambo House. The 2 buildings are separated by a 10-12 min. walk (lobby to lobby), but if you're going to take the time to go there, check out both gift shops, lobbies, pools, the flamingo pond, fitness centers and all 4 savannahs. (Even some resort guests aren't aware of the new Pembe savannah 'behind' the Maji pool Bar.) It's worth booking a meal at one of the 3 sit down restaurants and then taking time to explore these beautiful resorts.

Jambo on my to do list. Thanks for the info.

I don't like margaritas or Caronas. But I want this more than anything else at WDW!

LOL! Looks incredibly refreshing doesn't it? and it was just what I needed.

LOVING THE REPORT!! CANT WAIT FOR MORE!!:sohappy::sohappy:

Thanks!

Just wanted to say I am really enjoying your TR and pics! Looking forward to more

Danke!

 

[fractal]

Thanks! I'll be posting a trip report when I get back so we'll see how those pictures come out! And question: about how long did it take you to compose the shot then take it? Not too long? I was just curious about it. Finished reading the book yesterday and can't wait to start fiddling around with my camera.

I agree with you on ToT! My favorite ride as well. And HS at night is just so beautiful!

Seeing your pictures of Splash Mountain got me excited to ride it in Sept since the past 3 years it's been without water in January So it's been awhile!

Can't wait to read more!

Composing pictures is difficult when you are running through the parks with your kids. Stopping dead in your tracks to take a picture is unnerving enough for them - actually spending a few minutes or so setting up a picture it torturous. When they went to the pool - or were otherwise preoccupied I guess it would take me a few minutes to set up the shot in my mind then shoot it a few times till I got it right. As I said before, I can now understand why you would take a solo trip to focus on photography. That used to sound silly to me.

Have a great time on your trip! It will be here before you know it. I'm looking forward to your TR. I would spend some time practicing on shots around the house. Before my trip my wife was asking me why I kept taking pictures of the candle sitting on the kitchen island.

Great picture!

Awesome trip report. This has me thinking of my trip report already and we don't leave for another week!

Thanks! I'm jealous and will be looking forward to your trip report to help get me through the fall.

What a perfect day. You got to spend bonding time with one daughter and then got to do the same with the other two. Makes for lasting memories and wonderful times.

Thanks, it really was a great day that we won't forget.

I looooove margaritas but am not a fan of Corona and I would definitely give this a try! WOW!:sohappy:

It was really refreshing! thanks for following along.

 

[dreamscometrue]

The restaurant is definitely something to see. Kinda like a KISS concert, you may not like the music, but the show itself is worth the price of admission.

Great statement!

Saw KISS (again) in July 2009 when touring Canada, and Paul Stanley said to the crowd: "We know what you want. You just want to hear loud music and see us blow s*** up, right?"

He was right. That's what I wanted, I now I want to go to T-Rex too. :wave:

 

[disneyholic23]

wdw trip

i lol'd at dr doom

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Composing pictures is difficult when you are running through the parks with your kids. Stopping dead in your tracks to take a picture is unnerving enough for them - actually spending a few minutes or so setting up a picture it torturous. When they went to the pool - or were otherwise preoccupied I guess it would take me a few minutes to set up the shot in my mind then shoot it a few times till I got it right. As I said before, I can now understand why you would take a solo trip to focus on photography. That used to sound silly to me.

Have a great time on your trip! It will be here before you know it. I'm looking forward to your TR. I would spend some time practicing on shots around the house. Before my trip my wife was asking me why I kept taking pictures of the candle sitting on the kitchen island.

Luckily it's just me and my mom and we both love to take pictures so it won't be so torturous But I can only imagine with kids. But I'm happy you were still able to get really good shots even though they were trying to move you along!

And thank you! It seems like it is so close yet so far away...I want it to come now since it is our first trip in September, now that I've graduated college we can go at a different time of the year! And now I know I'll have one reader! Thanks! It will be my first TR but from reading yours and many many others I think I can get the hang of it I like writing. And thanks for the tip I'm going to go through things I highlighted in the book and start practicing on different things around the house. Funny about your wife too, some people just don't understand :lol:

 

[fractal]

Monday - Day 3 - was moving day. That meant that we all had to get up early, shower, dress, pack our stuff and be out of our room by 11am. If this were the army you would put one person in charge of the operation and everybody would just follow orders. Val was put in charge of our checkout but some of the troops didn't fall in line. Sterg and Toni were at each other all morning. Fighting about everything from who was next to take a shower to who bumped into who. This caused my blood pressure to rise.


"Oh no! Fractal is getting mad!" That was Sterg as I was chasing him around the room thinking about what wrestling move I was going to apply on him or what pressure point I was going to exploit. Before long I had him in a "Cobra Clutch" - from which there IS no escape. He proclaimed me the greatest Dad ever and promised not to bother his sister again.

Sterg and Toni alone by themselves get along perfectly. Add a parent to the mix and it becomes a competition for attention, and not in a good way. Sterg becomes jealous of the attention she gets. As my last child, she certainly has me wrapped around her finger. He likes to call her the "princess" that gets whatever she wants. It's not like he's abused though. He has it pretty good himself. I'm sure the parents out there can relate. When they really get into their nasty brother/sister routine it can ruin the whole family's day.

We managed to be out of the room by 11am and Sterg and I took our bag to bell services. After that I checked into the Beach Club Villas. We received brand new Keys to the Kingdom cards and room 134. A text would be sent to me when the room was ready. We decided to go to Epcot and ride Soarin' until the room was ready.

We walked through the International Gateway and started to make our way to the Land under threatening skies. There is a narrow pathway that goes from the end of WS directly to the Land. This short cut saved time but caused angst amongst the younger siblings. "Sterg just cut me off and almost knocked me over!" screeched Toni. "No, you jumped in front of me first" Sterg responded. Just then the heavens opened and it started to pour. I bet the rain on my head started to steam from my anger! Luckily there was a huge permanent "umbrella" covering a bench area that we stood under for 10 minutes or so until the rain slowed down. More fighting under the umbrella between Sterg and Toni. I was getting close to the end of my rope.

By the way - the ponchos I bought at Target before the trip were safely packed away with the rest of our luggage. Val kept asking me how I could forget the ponchos. "You bought ponchos, packed them and the day it rains we don't have them" She certainly had a point but there were extenuating circumstances. Stress levels were at Defcon 3 under that umbrella.

Luckily the rain slowed enough to allow us to continue our journey to The Land. We arrived and it was really packed as we weren't the only ones that wanted to stay dry. I was starting to get T-Rex flashbacks. We made our way to Soarin' - 100 minute standby. No thanks! We grabbed fastpasses and walked onto a boat for Living with the Land.

Living with the Land happens to be one of my favorite WDW attractions.
It kinda reminds me of the Chocolate World ride at Hershey Park. There is a lot of good Imagineering stuff going on here. The farm scene is one of my favorites. Unfortunately, it took me a while to remember I had a camera so not many pics. I also appreciate the educational nature of the ride and feel it properly represents the true mission of EPCOT - and without any movie characters.

Anybody for some Sturgeon?

Living with the Land did a good job of calming some nerves. We exited the ride and went to Sunshine Seasons for lunch. This was the first time we ate here. The recommendations from WDWMagic steered us in the right direction. I don't know what everybody else had and again no pictures - but I had the seared tuna on noodles and scarfed it up. It was exceptional, especially for a quick-serve meal!

After lunch we left The Land and dodged more raindrops into Innoventions West. This was another first for us. I incorrectly told Sterg that Sum of All Thrills was here and had him go search for it. Meanwhile, Toni grabbed me to take her into the the Videogame playground to which Sterg replied "I guess I'll just go by myself!" Oh the drama.

 

[fractal]

The videogame playground was very clever. Toni and Alex both did it. The first step of this two step routine is to go into an open booth-type machine. You then hear a voice telling you it is going to video-tape you doing certain motions. I think the first thing they do is just take a picture of you standing. Then they video tape you running in place. They next video you jumping and finally they tape you doing a "celebration" dance. Toni was really into this and she hammed it up.

After all this videoing you move out of the "booth" to a video game that looks like something you would see at an arcade. The game starts and instead of Mario or Luigi, the star of the game is you ( or Toni in this case ).

It was very cute and Toni loved it. Her theatrics in the booth translated well into the video world. Alex, meanwhile, let her embarrassment hamper her "booth" antics and her videogame had a very unenthusiastic teenager going through the motions. It was hilarious! I was actually bent over belly laughing watching her digitized self lamely running and jumping for her life - in direct contrast to Toni's all out effort.

It wasn't long before Sterg came back and blamed me for purposely sending him on a wild goose chase. He also wasn't happy to see us having a good time without him. He tried to enter through the exit and was scolded by a CM. The picture says it all.

After our videogames we explored Innoventions West only to find out that the rides that would normally be a walk-on were now 40 minute waits thanks to the rain. We wanted to try this but the wait was too long.

 

[fractal]

Sterg informed us that Sum of All Thrills was in Innoventions East which was across the plaza. Since it was pouring we all stayed put except for Sterg who rebelliously took off into the rain without us.

I wonder if I could stay dry by dodging under the sails?

Eventually we all made it over there. Sterg was half-way through a 50 minute wait line for Sum of All Thrills. I really wanted to try this but the wait nixed it.

While Sterg was waiting we tried out some other things like; testing a vacuum cleaner, pushing buttons that set off some kind of alarm, and smashing hard hats. We also found the environment center but it didn't seem to work.

Heading back to SoaT, Sterg was primed to get into the Kuka robotic simulator so we all gathered to watch. It was fun watching him go through the motions - "oh there is a corkscrew", "now a loop", and so on.

Sterg said it was "OK", but I think he really downplayed it considering his "the world is against me" attitude.

From there we went back to The Land to ride Soarin'. We used our fastpasses to get right on! - wait, scratch that - we used our fastpasses to wait in line for 30 minutes. That was easily the longest I ever waited for a ride using a fast pass! After the pre-show we were seated on the "top row" and man was I excited! I love Soarin'. Coming into this trip it was my favorite Disney ride. Unfortunately, after riding it on that day it dropped a few pegs.

I don't know if it's because I now have a nice HDTV, but the video really looked blurry to me. In addition, for the first time I could see the lines in the "screen" to the point it became distracting. Overall, still a good attraction but I didn't leave the show with that "wow" factor I always had before.
This was not shaping up to be a very good Monday.

Up Next - Smoothing feet and moving into the Villas!

 

[Raven66]

Still loving the report and pictures.

I feel for Sterg. I actually have 2 younger siblings but it's the youngest that gives me fits. We have always called him the golden child. I always tell my mom that when "Matt" toots it's sunshine that comes out. He is 35 now and I'm 44 and I still say all that stuff. But don't worry, him and I are very close and don't fight nearly as much as we used too.

 

[Ariel484]

Uh-oh...looks like the fractal family has a case of the Mondays.

The teenage angst is killing me! :lol: My younger brother and I were the same way growing up (but, you know...not anymore :lookaroun). Boy does that take me back.

We'll be in the Villas side of BC in January, so I hope you took some pictures!

I agree with you about Soarin'. Cleaning up the screen would be really nice, and seeing the edge lines does ruin it. 30 minutes in the FP line is crazy though! Yikes!

I hope the Monday got better for you guys! :wave:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Oh geez. Do I ever know how the teen squables can kill the happy in a trip! I swear before you all, when the boys start that crap this go around I'm going to tell them to just get away from me and ditch 'em. Straight up. There's nothing more aggravating...no matter where you are. And, oh yes, I know the Cobra Clutch. When done right there's no escape. Yes, I was the victim for maaaaany years (older brothers are so fun). Just as long as you don't go for the pile driver or my brother's favorite, when in the deep section of a pool he'd wrap around me so I couldn't get above water. I gave up and decided I was just going to die nearly daily during the summers. The Cobra Clutch is a great move. Oh! I could totally slap a Figure 4 on the boys! I'm feelin' this! Yep, my brother proclaimed me the "Princess" for many years, too. My question is have either of them ever broken any lamps over each other's heads? No reason for asking. :lookaroun:lol:

I agree with ya on Soarin'. It's grainy and losing it's luster fast. Definitely not worth a 100 minute wait. Nooooo waaaaay!

I'd like to spend more time in Innoventions. I always say this but rarely does it happen. The video game thing sound awesome! I definitely wanna get the boys to do that one! Without any zombies or tactical nukes it probably won't go down in history as the best game ever but it'll be fun for me.