"Woooooo!!" .. "Where's Adam?" - A Spring 2012 Trip Report

"Wooooooooooo!!" .. "Where's Adam?" - A Spring 2012 Trip Report

Ladies and gentleman.... Boys and girls... Welcome to my wonderful trip report!! From April 26th - May 7th, my sister, my mother and I went on a grand adventure to Walt Disney World. We laughed.. we cried.. we argued.. we ate lots of food, rode lots of rides and even met a character or two. It was the longest trip we have been on but felt like it went by in the blink of an eye. Always seems that way, right?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my story tonight; "Wooooooooo!!" .. "Where's Adam?" - A Spring 2012 Trip Report!


Overview:
This trip carries the same cast of characters as all my previous trip reports: Ashley (sister - 26) Terryn (Mom - 21 again..) and me (Darolyn - 29)

Me, Marie and Ashley - November 2011

Mama Dukes! - November 2011

If you have read my PTR, you know most of what I'm about to review. So you can skip to Thursday if you want. If not, here's a little bit of info:

This trip, we decided to drive to save more money so we could attend the Tower of Terror 10 Miler in September. While driving wasn't that bad, I'd definitely rather fly. Unfortunately flights were all $300+ per person with terrible times and I think we ended up driving for about $500 total! We left Thursday evening April 26 and left the world on Sunday May 6th. Our timeshare is located off property and since its within 30 miles of WDW, we cannot exchange it for DVC! Such a bummer. And since we didn't book our resort until January, our home resort was booked. Sooooo we ended up at Orange Lake Resort on 192. It was on the AK side of 192 and we could see the top of Expedition Everest and fireworks from Epcot outside our room. More on how we liked the property at the end of the report!

We were staying at the timeshare Friday 4/27-Friday 5/4. We weren't leaving to head home until Sunday so we needed a room for the last 2 nights. There was no question that we would stay on property. We had originally decided to stay in a regular room at the Wilderness Lodge. After a bit of researching though, I figured out we could rent DVC points at get a studio room at the Wilderness Lodge villas for $140 less. WOOT WOOT!!! So we changed over and rented the points. I'll review how well we liked this process vs dealing with Disney direct at the end. (All of my reviews will be done at the end including resorts, dining and just general things)

So now that the recap is out of the way.... My friend is dropping off a copy of Photoshop for me so I can edit my photos! I will hopefully post some more tonight or tomorrow. I have a busy weekend planned so I can't promise anything!! I just wanted to get it started!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Zambia Smokehouse is really good! Agree with the seat preference on Shiekra and the tigers. View cool exhibit!

Shiekra is a top 10 for me! I've also ridden it's sister coaster Griffon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg!

Looks like you guys had a great time at BG.

My wife and I went a loooooong time ago when my daughter was about 6 months old. She stayed at my parents house and we tore off to Tampa.

You're 100 percent right Tampa is beautiful.

Back then they used to give out free beer samples with admission...Well I took my sample and my wifes and downed them on an empty stomach...then proceed to jump right onto a coaster - I'm already prown to motion sickness - well needless to say I was 3 shades of green and never really recovered, We had to leave and I ruined what probably the last time alone in amusent park for us! Nice job huh?
Anyway - Your report has inspired me to make my way back there someday - this time with the kids and without the beer.

Especially now that I hear they have a red velvet dessert that rivals Starring Rolls cupcake...

Free beer?! Aww man, clearly I turned 21 after the good stuff!! haha. We went in 2009 but before that we hadn't gone since I was like 8. And I didn't do coasters back then and the park was a lot smaller. They've added so much stuff. It's great!! There is a whole new kids section and a LOT of animals.

And yes, the red velvet cake was DELISH!!!!

Love love love this trip report! Glad you started adding more to it so it pushed back to the top and I could find it. I know you did it all for me right? LOL

Yes, I did it ALL for you!!! lol Glad you're enjoying it. I'm hoping it doesn't get too boring with lack of pictures. I can tend to get over wordy sometimes and type too much!! haha

 

[mamamouse]

so cool I have never been to BG but definitely looks like a place my kids would love to try

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

We strolled to the front of the park looking at the animals along the way. they had a bird aviary, some kimono dragons and a kiddie ride area. Not gonna lie, I wanted to go play in the kiddie area haha

Now, my top 5 favorite animals are tigers, ostriches, penguins, dolphins and kangaroos. So far in my life I had seen tigers, ostriches and penguins in person (either at BG or Animal Kingdom or Lowry Park Zoo also in Tampa) but I'd never seen kangaroos or dolphins. Next year on the cruise we're doing a dolphin excursion so I could cross dolphins off my list but where the heck could I see kangaroos without going to Australia?! Shortly before our trip I learned BG had put in a new Wallaby area. For real?!? I would get to see kangaroos up close?!? This was awesome!! Even MORE awesome when we got there and learned we could feed them!!

We got some food, I think it was a couple bucks for a small bowl and proceeded through the door to the walkway. The wallabys and kangaroos were on the right side. I've fed ostriches before and they are kind of agressive but the kangaroos were very gentle.

They were digging in the dirt to get some of the cool dirt to lay in. I thought they hopped everywhere they went, but they walk too. I think we actually only saw one hop and he hopped from one end of the area to the other.

One was named Foster (all I could think of was the commercial "Beer... Fosters... Australian for beer!!) and he was a hungry fella. I don't remember the other names but there were probably close to 30 kangaroos/wallabys.

We ended up buying the photo package and we got a solo photo feeding the kangaroos each and then a photo of both of us. (we actually decided after we were done feeding and looking at the photos that non of them were that good so they gave us more food and took us back in so we could get a good picture.)

Some of them just laid around like this fella here...

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

There was a wallaby back in the bushes who had a baby and the baby was hitting and climbing all over the mama. It was cute. There was also a mama with a baby in her pouch but we couldn't see her that well back in the brush.

There was also an ostrich on the other side of the walkway. I actually stopped to pet him. You would think ostrich feathers would be soft, but they aren't. They're kind of rough.

We left the area and washed our hands, picked up our photo package and continued on. I will have to scan the pics we bought as soon as I can get to a scanner.

We then rode Gwazi. I am NOT a fan of wooden coasters as I think they are very rough. We have one here at the local theme park in Maine and I went on it last year and thought I was going to have internal bleeding afterwards! I do like Lightning Racer and Comet at Hershey Park though. Those ones are fun. Gwazi was so jerky, I couldn't wait to get off it. Plus it made my head start hurting more than it already was.

When we got off the ride we grabbed some waters and I took an Imitrex, something I had been hoping to avoid. I only take these when I get seriously bad migraines and try to avoid taking them if possible but the ibruprofen hadn't touched it and we had special dinner plans that night so I took an Imitrex and we continued on. There wasn't much left we wanted to do but Mom did want to ride the train so we headed to the station.

Now here is where we encountered the rudest woman all day. While we were walking to the train station, we passed this family (I think they were a family) of a woman, a man, another woman and 2 kids. The train station was VERY crowded and these people came in after we were in there. There was a line and 2 of the women sat down on the benches to the right of the line and the others got in line behind us. Well when they started letting people in, the two women snuck in front of everyone else who had been waiting. Not a lot of people got off the train so there wasn't room for a lot of people to board. Well they closed the line off about 3 or 4 people before we got through the turnstile. And since we didn't make it through, neither did the other people with these two women. One of the woman yelled and waved to the 3 others to come through and the attendant said there was no more room. The woman then proceeded to throw a hissy fit stating they were with her and got cut off from the group. Ummmm, more like you CUT IN LINE in front of everyone else who had been waiting for who knows how long (there was only 1 train running that day) Finally after she flipped out some more the rest of her party got to go through along with 2 other people since there was room. The attendant told us the next train would be along in 40 minutes so we decided to scrap the train idea which made me mad since Mom really wanted to ride it. She only went on one ride the whole day (Rhino Rally) ANd it was her birthday. If Miss Rude Pants hadn't cut in line, we would have gotten to go on. Some people just have ZERO manners or common sense (this woman was straight white trash too.) I was FUMING and it took everything in me not to make a comment to her while she was freaking out.

We walked over and stopped to look at the otters. They were funny, swimming around and this one apparently played dead.

We went on Montu and I closed my eyes the whole time cause I didn't want to get nauseus. Montu is a fun coaster where your feet dangle (similar to Dragon Challange at IOA) and it has a ton of loops!! After that we decided to hit Cheetah Hunt one more time. Before we got on, we stopped to watch the cheetahs, two of which were chasing each other around their habitat. One caught the other one and wrestled it to the ground.
Mom took some pics of the Cheetahs while we rode the coaster. Mom is a trooper. I felt bad that she got to go on one ride, but she said she didn't mind, she just liked being in the park and looking at all the animals. Love you Mom!!

After Cheetah Hunt we stopped in the gift shop and I decided I needed a Shamu ice cream so I went to find one and sat outside enjoying it while I waited for the other 2. Ashley had bought a snowglobe and had it sent to the front of the park so we headed out. It was around 3:30 or so. The place package pickup usually was was closed so they directed her to the regular line where there was only one open window and the line was crazy long. Eventually a staff member came out and I marched over to her and demanded why Ashley needed to wait in the regular ticket line to pick up a package and said it was ridiculous they only had one window open. The lady immediately took Ashley's receipt and went and got her package for her.

We got on the tram and the guy who talked on the back of the tram was hysterical. He pointed out that Johnny was the driver and if we wanted some real exciting thrills, Johnny would be making the same continuous loop for the rest of the night. He told everyone to hang onto their "private belongings" so that became a running joke with us the rest of the trip. When we got back to the car my cell phone was there, sitting in the blazing sun. I had forgotten it and I thought it would have been melted by now. It wasn't melted but it was too hot to use. It took awhile to cool down and when I was able to turn it back on I had a voicemail from a CM at Disney calling to let me know that the 9 oclock showing of the Hoop Dee Doo Revue on Weds was cancelled. FABULOUS!!! I called her back but it was just after 4 so I think she was gone for the day. Hopefully they could rebook us for the same day, just an earlier show since that was the only day we had free to do it.

After an uneventful journey up I-4 we reached the condo. I called my ex boyfriend in NC and we chatted for a bit before I took a short nap and shower. We had a special birthday dinner to rest up for!!

 

[fractal]

I think Griffon is the best of the two dive coasters. Cheetah hunt is a lot of fun - great pics of the cats!

Rude people just suck. I'm always conflicted whether to speak up or let the "staff" handle it. I hope you got into Hoop De Doo.

 

[ExtinctJenn]

Ughhhh I hate people like that (the train incident). I've so been there. One of my biggest pet peeves are the folks who save spots in line so the rest of their group can be off doing something else. Doesn't matter what it is, it's rude. The rest of us were waiting in line while you were away not having to be in line. I feel the same way about drivers who take a lane that ends to get in front of a huge line of cars. It's the "I'm better than everyone else, or at least the people who don't know me" syndrome. Idiots. Sorry you had to deal with it... specially cuz your mom wanted to do it!

 

[chrissyw14]

I love sheikra!! I am trying to plan a trip to BG in williamsburg when I come back from Disney I'm dying to ride Griffon!

people with the special tiger watch thing are soo annoying, most of them are kids so they don't understand the concept of letting others have a turn, I was soooo excited at BG in Tampa because I got to pet a Kangeroo, it was like a dream!

its amazing how many inconsiderate people you run into

excited to see your mom's birthday dinner!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

One of my favorite coasters is Shiekra too!!!! I love any coasters with huge drops. Hence why Superman (well now Bizarro) at Six Flags New England is my favorite coaster EVER. And everytime I have to sit in the front just thinking about going down that hill makes me excited! Sorry off topic, but I agree sitting on the end of Shiekra is the best too..silly Ashley!!!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

I think Griffon is the best of the two dive coasters. Cheetah hunt is a lot of fun - great pics of the cats!

Rude people just suck. I'm always conflicted whether to speak up or let the "staff" handle it. I hope you got into Hoop De Doo.

I agree Griffon is better!

I almost always speak up if someone is doing something rude. Because more often than not, I feel like the staff won't do anything about it. Sometimes it seems they walk on egg shell with rude, overbearing people (like the woman who cut us) Seems easier to just give her what she wants than to say no and listen to her freak out some more or have her file a complaint at guest relations.

Ughhhh I hate people like that (the train incident). I've so been there. One of my biggest pet peeves are the folks who save spots in line so the rest of their group can be off doing something else. Doesn't matter what it is, it's rude. The rest of us were waiting in line while you were away not having to be in line. I feel the same way about drivers who take a lane that ends to get in front of a huge line of cars. It's the "I'm better than everyone else, or at least the people who don't know me" syndrome. Idiots. Sorry you had to deal with it... specially cuz your mom wanted to do it!

I can't stand that either! I understand if you have a child who maybe needs to use the bathroom or somthing like that, but to save sports for the rest of your family so they can go ride Space Mountain or something... no way. I always speak up when I see that stuff happening.

I love sheikra!! I am trying to plan a trip to BG in williamsburg when I come back from Disney I'm dying to ride Griffon!

people with the special tiger watch thing are soo annoying, most of them are kids so they don't understand the concept of letting others have a turn, I was soooo excited at BG in Tampa because I got to pet a Kangeroo, it was like a dream!

its amazing how many inconsiderate people you run into

excited to see your mom's birthday dinner!

Awww I love the pic Kangaroo are so flippin cute! lol

I'll hopefully get the dinner portion of this day posted tonight!!

One of my favorite coasters is Shiekra too!!!! I love any coasters with huge drops. Hence why Superman (well now Bizarro) at Six Flags New England is my favorite coaster EVER. And everytime I have to sit in the front just thinking about going down that hill makes me excited! Sorry off topic, but I agree sitting on the end of Shiekra is the best too..silly Ashley!!!

I LOVE Superman! Only been to 6 Flags once but we rode it a few times. So much fun! I love big drops like that!!

 

[PRNCSAurora]

I love the kangaroo pictures! They are so adorable.

 

[everestnut]

Finally got to read through your trip report and thoroughly enjoying it. Your pictures are great.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

I love the kangaroo pictures! They are so adorable.

Thank you! They were really super cute and gentle

Finally got to read through your trip report and thoroughly enjoying it. Your pictures are great.

thanks for reading!! And thenks for the compliments onmy pics. I'm still learning. Haven't mastered the indoor shots yet!!

 

[Tinkerbella16]

Still loving this TR! Can you believe you'll be back next month already??!!! I feel like it was just yesterday, you were about to leave for this trip and you almost didn't go! Time is flying, I am so excited for September!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Still loving this TR! Can you believe you'll be back next month already??!!! I feel like it was just yesterday, you were about to leave for this trip and you almost didn't go! Time is flying, I am so excited for September!

I know right? Time is flying by which is kind of a bummer cause I'm not quite ready for the summer and nice weather to be gone but I'm excited to get back there!!!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Around 8pm, we were ready to head out to dinner. Since it was mama's birthday and we were going somewhere sorta fancy, we decided to dress up. I thought I had a picture of me and Ashley before dinner, but I can't find it

We made our way onto Disney property towards the Contemporary. We checked in and they whisked us up in the elevator to.... California Grill!! I think this was probably the meal I was most looking forward to. We booked a 9pm ADR as Wishes was at 10.

We sat at the bar and were just about to order a drink when our pager went off, right at 9pm. Perfect!! We were escorted to a table with a wonderful view of the castle. Here is a pic from my iPhone of our table.

I ordered a French Martini, as did Ashley. Can't remember what Mom ordered. Let me tell ya, the French Martini was SUPER strong! It actually took me the whole meal to finish it. They definitely don't skimp on their alcohol there!!

There was more confetti on the table and at the end of the meal we gathered it up to take with us (so we could use it in our scrapbook!)

Our server was really good (I can't remember his name though!) and the atmosphere was great. The only thing that bothered me was there were quite a few children there and it was kind of noisy. People were also dressed in "park attire" including cut off jean shorts and tee shirts. Oh well, at least we looked good. haha.

We got some bread and butter brought out for us.

We all ordered the same thing: Oak fired filet of beef with mashed potatos and asparagus. A few minutes after we ordered the Magic, the Memories and You played on the castle and they piped the music into the restaurant. It was pretty cool.

And the meal did not disappoint. It was AMAZING and easily the best meal of the trip for me! The filet was tender and very flavorful. The sauce didn't overpower it but rather complimented it extremely well. The asparagus was cooked perfectly (and I love asparagus!) and the mashed potatos were creamy and delicious.

Right after we were served, Wishes started. We could see perfectly from our table so we didn't even move. I was afraid it would continue to stay noisy during the show but the lights dimmed and it went quiet. All was right in the world. Wishes ended too soon though and we finished our meals. Dinner was excellent, we had a great day at Busch Gardens and Mom was enjoying her birthday. She didn't know there was still one last surprise for her!!

Prior to the trip Ashley and I had decided to order her a cake to celebrate. We didn't want one of the standard podium cakes they have but we didn't want any fondant covered fancy cake. So I called the Contemporary Bakery and ordered a 10inch chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and chocolate mousse inside. It was going to be colored green, Mom's favorite color, with flowers. Since I hadn't given many specifics other than green and flowers, I was nervous to see how it would come out...

Our waiter walked over with the cake and Mom saw it, but she thought it was for someone else so she was surprised when he brought it to our table. It was BEAUTIFUL!!

He even offered to take our picture with the cake!

We each had a piece and he brought the box back out so we could take it back to the room. We would be eating cake for the next week, which didn't bother me in the least bit. It was so yummy. The cake was moist and the frosting was sweet. Perfection!!

We headed back to the condo, box of cake in hand and Mom said it was her best birthday ever!!

Up Next! - Epcot, MK and a little taste of the South Pacific!

 

[ExtinctJenn]

What a beautiful cake they came up with! I'm also impressed with what they do for that sort of thing.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

What a beautiful cake they came up with! I'm also impressed with what they do for that sort of thing.

I was 100% pleased with the cake. The flowers weren't edible though, even though they were beautiful. We couldn't have been more happy with how it turned out

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Tuesday May 1st - Epcot / Magic Kingdom

Tuesday was another early morning as we wanted to get to Epcot as close to opening as possible. We arrived around 8:45 and realized it was EMH. Darn!! They were herding those people staying on property through one gate while we moved down to the right (if you're facing Spaceship Earth) and waited. We went and grabbed iced mochas. I should have waited til we got to Sunshine Seasons to get one as they have the pre-mized ones and this one was not pre-mixed. I only drank like half of it.

Finally they started letting us in. We hoofed it over to The Land and picked up FP's for Soarin. We decided since we were there we would ride Living With The Land. It was only on this trip that I realized in the greenhouse, the lettuce across from the lettuce with the hidden Mickey, it spells out Epcot!!!

Oh look, a headless duck...

We made our way over to the Seas and walked onto Nemo. After that, Ashley and I needed a bathroom break so we headed into the Land while Mom strolled around and took some pics.

Mom really likes flowers....

She then became a paparazzi and took some pics of me and my sister. What a creeper!! Now I know how celebrities feel!!

We decided to ride Imagination to see our friend Figment!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

I've expressed my displeasure for the current state of Imagintion before. While it's a LOT better than Imagination 2.0, it's nothing compared to the wonderful ride of the 1980's and 90's Epcot. I really wish they would bring back Dreamfinder. My most vivid memories of Epcot as a child are of the Imagination ride. Most specifically the pastel room with the merry-go-round. It was so purtty!!!!

There were some omnious looking clouds overhead and we were hoping it wouldn't rain. We headed back to The Land to use our FP for Soarin. We had some time to kill before our 12:10 ADR so we took a journey back to the 80s and saw Captain EO.

When we exited Captain EO it was sprinkling. We marched on though. Mom wanted to check out the garden festival booth as Ashley and I were going to get her something she picked out from there. (We also got her a matching wallet to go with her pink and plaid Disney bag she got last November. She really liked it.)

Mom looked around the garden booth but wasn't sure what she wanted. We realized it was almost time for our ADR so we skeddadled.

 

[ExtinctJenn]

I've expressed my displeasure for the current state of Imagintion before. While it's a LOT better than Imagination 2.0, it's nothing compared to the wonderful ride of the 1980's and 90's Epcot. I really wish they would bring back Dreamfinder. My most vivid memories of Epcot as a child are of the Imagination ride. Most specifically the pastel room with the merry-go-round. It was so purtty!!!!

I'm all for change and encourage it in a place like Epcot where it should be constantly moving forward but I agree with you on this one. To this day it's the one removal I just don't understand. It's not like other attractions like Horizons etc. that protrayed a view of the future that slowly became outdated... how can Imagination be outdated? Refurb using new technology, new lighting, whatever yes... but Imagination doesn't need an "upgrade."