Photo TR: A Weekend In Orlando

Before I get this started I want to thank Robb and the other TPR members who gave me some excellent advise on tackling Disney World in one day. For those that my not have seen my previous thread on December 1st I received a text message from my mom asking if I wanted to go do Disney World on December 12th. Of course I said yes but that meant a lot of planning in a little bit of time. We had a very fun trip.

Day 1: Sea World Orlando

The three of us that went on this trip had not been to a Sea World park since we had one in Ohio, so I was really looking forward to hitting this park, especially for Manta & Kraken. Sea World is a cool park, two awesome coasters to keep me busy, and great animal exhibits to keep my mom & sister busy. Overall Sea World is a fun place to visit but other than Manta & Kraken there wasn't anything I found really special to return for in the future.

Scorecard:

Antarctica (x1)

Shamu Express (x1)

Polar Express (x1)

Manta (x5)

Kraken (x6)

Antarctica: I found the first half of this ride to be a little underwhelming, however the ending sequence in front of the big screen was really good. The actual penguin exhibit after the ride was excellent.

Polar Express: This was excellent, we all had a lot of fun and were happy we came at this time of year to ride it.

Kraken: I loved Kraken, great forceful old-school B&M. The layout & pacing were excellent, it's a really fun coaster.

Manta: This was my first B&M flyer, so I was unsure of what the ride experience would be like. The pretzel loop is so awesome, that's my favorite part of the ride. I also found the rest of the layout really fun. That's how I'd describe both SWO coasters nothing earth shattering but both are loads of fun.

Onto the pictures!

6AM Flight meant seeing a great sunrise.

Yup, we're in Florida!

Oh boy, I spot a Roller Coaster.

A great welcome at the entrance.

Ahhh a new credit.

Family photo first.

First order of business, let's ride a coaster.

This is a great station and I'm always happy to see 3 train operation.

Off to Antarctica.

My sister took a selfie with the snowman.

Oohhh Penguins

The Penguins were my favorite exhibit, maybe because of the cold it just felt the most authentic.

It was really cool to see them swimming underwater too.

Alright lets get to another big ride.

One of the great Old-school B&M's

Only good picture I got of the sharks.

I have great memories of the jungle gym from Sea World Ohio as a kid, great they still have them.

I spot another credit.

Cheesy station picture.

When you go to Sea World you have to see Shamu

Killer Whales doing their thing.

It was an entertaining show.

Love this shot.

Polar express was a fun on

I didn't take many pictures after the sunset, but I'll close with this one I took on the way out.

Wow! Great pictures! I'm glad you really enjoyed yourself! I had a great time when I went to Seaworld Orlando for the first time in 2011. I rode all the major coasters and other rides, and my day was amazing! Too bad I never got a chance to experience Polar Express.

I haven't followed it much, but what was The Polar Express attraction, there?

Multi-media, or an actual moving ride? Sounded interesting, one way or the other.

Great tour of all of the park. And the beasties looked happy, too.

I haven't followed it much, but what was The Polar Express attraction, there?

Multi-media, or an actual moving ride? Sounded interesting, one way or the other.

For the Holiday Season Sea World converts their Wild Arctic flight simulator ride into the Polar Express ride. Most of the ride is the sequence in the movie where the train is heading to the north pole.

^ Ah okay, thanks, I've actually never seen The Polar Express in it's entirety.

So I have no knowledge of that sequence. Good to know.

It sure looks like you had a great time, how were the crowds?

It sure looks like you had a great time, how were the crowds?

The crowds for Sea World were very light. Manta was a station wait and Kraken was a walk-on all day. The other rides for the whole family had about 20 minute waits and all the animal exhibits had plenty of open space to look and observe.

Day 2: Walt Disney World Resort

We started our morning arriving at Animal Kingdom 15 minutes before opening. For this day we were expecting big crowds so we hustled through the park, but still had a lot of fun. I didn't photograph it but we had lunch at the Tamu Tamu stand. The curry chicken there is excellent!

Score Card:

Expedition Everest

Kilimanjaro Safari

Maharaja Jungle Trek

Finding Nemo - The Musical

Dinosaur

Expedition Everest was the biggest surprise for me the whole day. It was a lot bigger of a thrill than I was expecting it to be. It was worth the visit to Animal Kingdom just to ride this. The Safari & Jungle Trek are excellent and just what you expect from them. There's lots of animals to see. The Finding Nemo was a pretty good show. Since they're condensing a full length movie into 45 minutes there's no down time and the musical keeps moving. I found Dinosaur to be a little underwhelming, I felt that the ride vehicle just swerved and bumped way more than it needed to. Though the Dinosaur jumping out in front of you at the end was really thrilling. Crowds were relatively light here but we were only there from Opening until 12:30.

Onto more pictures!

Pictures of our 12 year old Disney tickets.

Note MGM instead of now Hollywood Studios

Here's how it looked once it's opened.

And here are the old tickets.

Stop 1 Animal Kingdom

Gotta take a selfie first.

Christmas tree #1

I was so excited to get in line I didn't take a picture of the entrance, but here's part of the excellently themed queue.

Off to see the Safari

Animals.

After that we saw the musical.

It was a great show to see

Last ride of the morning.

The queue lines here keep you really entertained!

Hollywood Studios

I was really looking forward to going here and riding Rock "N" Roller Coaster & Tower of Terror again since it had been 12 and a half years since our last visit. Crowds started getting heavier while we were hear as we waited about an hour for the coaster and ToT. I loved the atmosphere of Hollywood studios, I mean, It's Disney World so it was just as good as I expected.

Scorecard:

Tower of Terror

Rock "N" Roller Coaster

Star Tours

Tower of Terror: My last time riding at age 9 I must admit I was pretty scared, and I didn't remember the ride sequence that well but man that was a blast! The Theme, the Pre-show, and the ride itself were all excellent!

Rock "N" Roller Coaster: My favorite Vekoma coaster. I was very impressed with operations on this, trains were dispatching in 28 seconds. What can be said that hasn't been said already. It's a lot of fun, the soundtrack is great, and sea-serpent rolls rock.

Star Tours: Excellent motion simulator, with a few surprises. We all found the show to be a little short but still a great ride.

Stop #2

Christmas Tree #2

Selfie in front of the gate.

First up, Tower of Terror

The Theme here is so well executed.

Next up!

Here's a photo of my Sister & I in front of the guitar ages 20 & 22. December 2014

Here's a photo of my Sister & I in front of the guitar ages 7 & 9. March 2002

I found this room to be pretty cool.

Awesome theme once again, Disney just knows how to do it!

Glad I got to take a picture with the sorcerer's hat before it goes.

Last ride of Hollywood Studios.

Also got to see a peek of Jedi Training Academy right with Darth Vader showed up.

Last but not least.

Magic Kingdom!

By the time we got to Magic Kingdom it was about 5:30 in the afternoon. The park was jam packed, and the crowds only got heavier as the evening went on. The only rides I remember from my last visit 12 years ago were Buzz Lightyear & Space Mountain. Plus the brand new Seven Dwarfs mine train, we had a lot to do!

Score Card:

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

Big Thunder Mountain

Pirates of The Caribbean

Buzz Lightyear

Space Mountain

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: We had a good long 100 minute wait for this, the line spilled out the queue, and it also had a little bit of down time while we were in line but it was worth the wait. I liked the games and other activities offered while you're in line. It was completely dark by the time we hopped in line for this, so I didn't get to see to much of the theming around the ride. The ride was a lot of fun, we did get stopped on the second lift for a few minutes though. If I had one complaint, it'd just be that the ride is a little too short. Other than that it was great.

Big Thunder Mountain: This was my least favorite of the mine trains at Disney World, surprisingly only a 10 minute wait. My favorite part of the ride its when the two trains on the track cross over each other. Other than that, the rest of the ride I didn't find very memorable.

Pirates of The Caribbean: This was a fun little ride, we got to have an extended ride of about 30 minutes since our boats got stuck. We waited about 10 minutes. Worth a shot.

Buzz Lightyear: From now on I'm going to be sure to make a point to ride this every time I go Magic Kingdom. It's so much fun. We only waited 25 minutes My Sister & I are very competitive so we were competing for a high score. I loved how colorful the queue for was for the ride. The Ride itself is pure fun just shooting stuff with the lazer. I got the highest score of the group at 168,000 which when I got to the score board at the end I found out isn't all that high haha.

Space Mountain: Originally we were going to do this ride first but it was down when we got there so it ended up being the last ride of the night. Not too long of a wait just an hour at about 11:30 when we hopped in line. The game in the queue was a lot of fun, and the ride itself is better than I remember from 12 years ago.

Magic Kingdom was the perfect place to close out our day at Disney World, we were lucky the park was open until 1AM the day we went so we got everything in we wanted to do. We had such a fun an successful two days in Orlando, and I can't wait to come back again. Also thanks again to Robb and the other TPR members that helped with planning. I really appreciate it. And now the last batch of pictures!

Stop #3

The excitement grows as you take the monorail over

We're here!

Christmas tree #3

One of my favorite entrance plaza's!

Got to catch some fireworks soon after we entered the park.

We headed to this section of the park next, space mountain was down so we started making our way around.

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train had a pretty dark queue line to start.

This was my favorite "mini attraction" while in line for Seven Dwarfs, we did get people so spin all 7 barrels at once.

The Christmas lights on the castle were awesome.

Only good picture I got of Big Thunder Mountain

Took this while we were stuck on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

With the work lights on and the audio off, the magic temporarily disappeared.

Another shot with the work lights on.

Not sure how many boats piled up behind us since the jam happened around a bend.

Another castle shot

more castle shots!

Pure fun, about to commence.

I loved all the bright colors in the queue line.

Last ride of the night, Space Mountain!

the castle is still looking good

Stop at the gift shop & buy some souvenirs, then take more pictures of the castle.

See you later Disney World, next time I won't have more than a decade between visits.

What a fantastic report! I love that you guys got in everything you wanted to do! Sounds like you made excellent use of time!

Great trip report, you really got a hell of a lot done in two days!

I loved this report...shows how great a weekend you can have even when Disney's busy! Your great attitude throughout this TR was a great Christmas gift for me...thanks!

Excellent review and pictures. Never would have thought it would have been possible to do those three Disney Parks in a day but you did well with the time management and got to do everything you wanted to do.

Great TR especially the before and after pics of you and your sister at RR Coaster! G;ad you enjoyed the parks!

I loved this report...shows how great a weekend you can have even when Disney's busy! Your great attitude throughout this TR was a great Christmas gift for me...thanks!

agreed 100%. . your attitude made all the difference!

(and you even got to do the safari and SEE animals ).

great report.

LOVE those castle photos...thanks for sharing!

Thanks for posting this report. Looks like you had a very busy couple of days including a marathoning of Disney. I love that you got to do the things that you wanted to do and that you enjoyed your visit!

Thanks everybody! We just went in with the attitude that since we're only going to be here for one day, so we need to plan accordingly to get done as much as possible! I'd say luck was on our side that day!

What? No EPCOT?

I am kid-ding. Great report, and wow, you got to do everything you wanted to do.

Better than I could ever do on a day's visit, with a parks hopper.

All the best parts of Disney World in 16 hours? On a Saturday in December? No problem, right? That's a heck of a day, and executed to perfection. Well done -- enjoyed the pictures and the report!

Cool little TR! About 10 years ago my family did the same thing - we had one day to visit 3 Disney parks on a weekend in November. Just like you we somehow made it happen and had a really awesome time. Love the pics of you and your sister in front of R&RC!