Walt Disney World - February 09

[Invertsince93]

Hello TPR! Welcome to my first trip report...on TPR. This is a old trip I took in February, I just never got around to posting it until now.

 

My mom surprised my sister and I with a trip to Disney for Christmas. We left on friday February 7th around 8am. With a 23 hour drive ahead of us, we grabbed took one last stop at Tim Hortons and crossed over into the

twilight zone...er..America.

 

Our first night we stopped at the bottom of Pennsylvania. This state is beautiful at night. At least, the parts we drove through. All the towns in the valleys were breathtaking. The only downside was the constant ear popping.

 

The second day was driving...alot. We stopped at the cheesiest place ever. South of the Border. We picked up some fireworks we wouldn't be able to find EVER in Ontario, and moved on. By 10pm we were halfway through Georgia where we stopped for the night. I wish I could remember what places we stayed at, but it's been to long.

 

Finally, on the third day, god said let there be Mickey. We passed the magical gates of WDW. Where we spent the next 30 minutes hunting down the Port Orleans Riverside Resort. Checking in, we got our Keys to the World and my Birthday pin, along with every other handout they could fit into our hands, and left to find our room. As expected with Disney, the room was really really good. Clean, roomy, and all our extra needs were taken care of. Our only complaint was the shower curtain was a tad mouldy, but once we told our "mousekeeper" it was replaced the next day.

 

After wandering around the resort, which I don't think we saw even half of during our whole trip, we hopped on the ferry to Downtown Disney.

We ate dinner at the english-pub-fish-and-chips place, and went through some of the handouts that were shoved at us when we checked in. First thing that caught my eye was the extra magic hours chart. Seeing Magic Kingdom was opened until midnight we got on the bus and headed over to the first park of our trip.

 

Heroes is on now. So I'll leave you with a picture of MK. Comments (Negative and Positive) are greatly appreciated, and I'll post more pictures later. =D

Gasp! Spoiler for next update. =O

New-ish restaurant. It looked to kid orientated, so we never ate there. After reading the orlando trip updates however, I regret not going.

Rainforest Cafe! We never ate here, but I'm guessing once you've eaten at one of them, you've eaten at all of them. (Could this be a artsy shot? :o )

I love the themeing of this resort. So pretty, and the atmosphere is so calming.

Our standard room. Complete with Mickey shaped towel and $15 a day internet.

We checked into our home for the next week. I loved this place. So home-y, and had me saying "ya'll" for the next month.

I think the sun got a little brighter when we approached these gates.

George enjoying the floridian sun.

Floridians, maybe you can answer this, but are your roads ALWAYS under construction? I swear this was the same place they were fixing when I went 2 years ago.

WHAT? Something park related?!

Maybe one day I'll get to this place.

On the second day, a 18 wheeler decided to bless us with a rock in the windshield. We named it George, after my mom's boss.

Passing through Pennsylvania. One of the most beautiful states?

In Canada, parents send their kids to the dungeon when they are bad.

One last GOOD coffee before leaving the true north strong and free.

[Em-Z]

Nice pictures! That must have been a ton of driving for you. I went to Disney World and stayed at Port Orleans Riverside around that time also, for President's Day weekend. I miss it so much!

[BeemerBoy]

Floridians, maybe you can answer this, but are your roads ALWAYS under construction?

 

Yes.

[krazekiddd]

I-4 certainly seems like its ALWAYS under some sort of construction.

 

Great TR so far.

[Invertsince93]

Thanks for the comments! ^^

The drive was softened by the large amount of Disney music we had put on CDs...er.."bought"...of course. Kids, don't illegally download music!

Ugh, all the construction was frustrating. The 2 hours to Disney became 4 hours. >.<

 

---

Sunday, February 8th

 

So, when we finally got to Magic Kingdom, it was already getting dark. We had an hour and a half until Wishes, so we just started in Adventureland and started to work our way around. First was the walk through the Swiss Family Robinson Tree. I like this attraction, just because (and especially at night) it seems like you're no longer in the park and actually in a jungle.

 

Next was a walk on for Jungle Cruise. We were a very privileged group and were able to see the backside of water IN THE DARK, and the 'friendly' alligators IN THE DARK. My favorite joke is still the paradox at the end though.

 

Our third stop was Pirates of the Caribbean - Feat. Jack Sparrow. He really does stick out like a sore thumb in this, seeing how the rest of it looks so retro. Still an awesome ride though, and for a walk on, I'm not complaining.

 

Our final ride before Wishes was Big Thunder Mountain, my favorite "mountain" at the parks. I must say, I much prefer night time rides rather than day time rides on this. Apparently everyone else does, as it had the longest wait we had yet to see infront of a ride. A long, agonizing, 15 minute wait. It didn't even last that long, as when we reached the point where the Fastpassers and Normal waiters meet up, a cast member let us through the empty fastpass side. =D

 

With 15 minutes to spare before Wishes, we headed back to the front of the park. My sister, Chelsea, decided to stop for a funnel cake along the way. GEEZE they are slow at making them. We ended up watching the show from the side of the castle near Liberty Square. Worst place to sit ever. We did manage to see it later in the week though.

 

The non-resort people were now leaving, and our Extra Magic Hours starting, we booted it back to the Haunted Mansion. The staff here are awesome too. If they weren't working at Disney, I could definatley seen them as a full time scareactor at Universal. I tried to make one of them smile, just outside the main doors, and she followed us into the stretching room and just stood behind me during the pre-show. When I turned to leave, I didn't realize she was there and I jumped 50 feet in the air when I saw her. At least she smiled then. =P

As we stood in the final hallway, before boarding, we got the "temporary delay" message. Everyone in line was perfectly happy though. We got into a chorus of Kumbya, followed by random Disney songs in order to drown out the music and annoying voice over the speakers. 15 minutes later, we got onto our doombuggy and off we went. Another classic ride. My favorite part is still the dining hall scene with all the ghosts. It's so pretty. =D

 

Left the mansion, wanted to re-ride, rest of family didn't. Dx

 

We headed to Fantasyland and contemplated Peter Pan's Flight. Somehow this still managed to have a 60 minute wait. I think the wait time counter is just stuck on that time or something, we decided not to test it though. Skipped Small World, and walked into the theater for Philarmagic. This became my sisters and moms all time favorite Disney "show" (Mind you, we're all Disney Music geeks). The only problem we found with it was the smells were not working. D:

 

We didn't bother going back into that toontown place. I already had the credit there, and Chelsea decided to wait to see any characters. We each grabbed a fastpass for Space Mountain, which currently had a 40 minute wait, and headed to Buzz Lightyear. It really seemed to be walk on heaven here tonight, as we managed to get our 4th walk on in the past hour and a half. Chelsea and her Left 4 Dead skills kicked our ass. I was a not so close second, and I think my mom was too busy playing with spinning the car to be shooting.

 

With another hour until our fastpasses were useable, we went and sat through Stich's Great Escape. I don't see why everyone bashes this attraction. It isn't BAD, but I never got to experience what it replaced, so I can't compare it.

 

We missed the last MiLF show, and we had really nothing better to do, so we went in the standby line for Space Mountain. It was still 40 minutes, and it was still 40 minutes until we could use the Fastpasses. I love the queue for this. I really hope it didn't get destroyed by the renovations. The music is nice, the windows are amazing, and the overall atmosphere is stunning. Being as tall as I am (6"2 ish), I did not raise my hands for much of this ride in fear of losing a hand. It was definitely a wild, rough ride. When we finished, I ran through and used my fastpass to ride again, on the other side. Headache city? Yes.

 

At last it was time to head back to the hote- or, it would have been, but my sister and mom seem to be like bugs to a light when it comes to stores. We spent another 30 minutes browsing the stores. The bus line back to Riverside was giant, so we hopped onto the empty French Quarter one, and walked back to Riverside. It took us about 20 minutes, but it was so pretty. There was like, no one walking around, and it was a beautiful night. It was so weird walking around at night in a t-shirt in February. =P

SLEEP.

 

P.S - As I go further in the trip, there WILL be more pictures and less text. I promise.

I believe some of you may recongize this robot. (I took the picture before they told me not too. Therefore not illegal? =P )

From the back of the castle. Taller than the Disneyland castle? (y/n)

Philarmagic themeing. Hades is like, the second best Disney villian.

This is Wishes. Side view. The tree is what this show is REALLY about.

I didn't feel AT ALL like a nerd taking pictures of these.

It's a little blurry, but that's because halfway through taking it, a hoard of cheerleaders attacked the line. We had to hurry to get ahead.

More like Awesomeland. 8)

I think this is the only picture I have of Main Street U.S.A.

[Invertsince93]

I promise I won't take long breaks like that again, pictures on mom's laptop, which went in for repair. So I had to resize all the images again and stuff. =/

Edit from last update, I meant 2 hours from top of Florida, to 4 hours.

 

Anyways, DAY 2! Outlet shopping / Hollywood Studios

 

Okay, so. The morning started out like

 

Alex : HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS!

Chelsea : Outlet shopping

Mom : Outlet Shopping.

Alex : =(

 

So, we went to a outlet center in Kissimmee. One of like, a million they have. We bought stuff. Actually, Chelsea and mom shopped, I went to an internet cafe and had the most delicious chocolate milkshake I've ever had. I think the place was called "Coffee of the World." Or something like that. While there, we bought/printed off our week passes to Universal Studios, then around noon, drove back to Disney property.

 

Definitely one of the plus things to driving down is having a car of your own. So much more convenient.

 

Hollywood Studios. This park at first looked like a mess. It's probably because it was a park I'd never been to before, and the first park I've been to that wasn't layed out in a circle. (A la Wonderland and Magic Kingdom) It was also the first time in forever where we had to pick up a park map. Being with my sister and mom, first thing we went to was the stores. The only one that interested me was the villains store. So. Much. Nightmare Before Christmas Stuff! (I sound like a wannabe-emo kid.)Seriously, I liked that movie before it was cool to like it.

 

We took the mandatory pictures infront of the uber hat, then headed to the wait time board. Toy Story Mania : 120 minute wait. I don't think that changed the whole week we were there. Then we saw the Tower of Terror wait : 13 minutes. How clever. We decided to head there.

 

--WARNING. TOWER OF TERROR PRAISEMENT AHEAD---

Now, Tower of Terror wasn't a ride in my eyes until I was about 11. To me, it was the movie. I watched that movie so much, I can still quote parts everytime I catch it on t.v. Naturally, I ran (Well, as much as I could run in the crowds) to the ride and completely attacked it with my camera. If you take all the pictures I took, and used that program they use to make 3D images on houses for websites, you could probably remake ToT on your computer.

 

My sister sat this one out, as she hates drop rides. No matter how much we tried to tell her she HAD to ride it. My mom and I went in, practically walked into the lobby. It was awesome. Well, until we were ushered into the library...with a flock of cheerleaders. I don't know what it is with you americans and your cheerleaders. They are like, clones of each other. With high pitched screams and voices. D:

 

After our ears were shattered in there, we made sure to fall behind them leaving the library last. Choosing the opposite path they did, we were lucky enough to get pushed up to take the last two spots on a elevator that was going to leave. Thank goodness, for in the boiler room on the elevator we were going to take, was more cheerleaders.

 

The elevator we got on was with cool people. Like seriously. We sang Love in an Elevator as they loaded us. The ride attendants were all "That's the next ride over guys." No one talked during the climb up, which was nice. When we entered the "4th dimension" my mom started freaking out. "Alex! You didn't tell me it went off the track! WHY IS IT OFF THE TRACK?" The other people then yelled through the rest of the dimension "OH ALEX! WHYYY?" mocking her. Anyone that mocks my mom like that is good in my books. =P

 

The ride was a blast. I loved the randomness of the drops. The view was amazing. The feeling given by pulling you down, rather than just dropping is totally awesome. Every park should have a clone of this. Seriously. Rid of the SLCs and put these in it's place.

We managed to hit some downtime, as when we were done, we sat in the dimly lit elevator for about 5 minutes. We did the best rendition of Kumbaya ever. I think that ride proved that the people you sit with on a ride, can really make the experience so much better.

 

---End of ToT praisement ---

 

After locating my sister in the giftshop, we went to check out Rockin Roller Coaster. I visited the giant bathroom stall. We went to get fastpasses, however by 2pm, they were all gone for the day.

We didn't feel like waiting in the hour and a half long standby line, so we went back to Toy Story Mania. This was the one ride I didn't look into before coming to the park. Apparently you have to get there at opening to get a fastpass. According to the person at the front of the standby line, they were gone at 10:30, an hour and a half after the park opened. Sadly, we never got to go on TSM. Next time maybe.

 

We checked out the empty American Idol Experience that was set to open that saturday. Took some nerd shots of construction signs and things, then made our way to Star Tours.

 

I'll describe this attraction in 3 words. Highly Themed Headache. Ow. The queue was empty, so it was a nice hike to the ride itself. It could be that I'm not much of a Star Wars geek, but I didn't like it very much. Not when they could fit another ToT over there instead. =P

 

Leaving the gift shop, we then proceeded to get lost in Streets of America. It seemed like a whole lot of nothing back there. I can see something Cars themed going back there though, with Lightning McQueen and Mater just randomly back there. I also "overheard" some important looking people walking around with security discussing "We could have the lights up there, and the stage there..." when I approached them, trying to eavesdrop, they noticed and asked what I was doing. Then they said, "Oh, we were just talking about how that picture looks 3D from a certain angle", obviously B-Sing it.

 

We found our way back to the main area, and had dinner at the ABC food place. The food wasn't really that great, but we were so hungry, it didn't matter.

 

Contemplated going on The Great Movie Ride, decided against it from reviews I read on the DIBB. Did I miss anything good?

 

My sister and I are Narnia freaks, so we went back to the Narnia attraction. NOT worth the wait. All it was is the trailer. We managed to get a picture of my sister on the alter where Aslan was killed though, before the ride person told her to get off.

 

Went over to Little Mermaid. waited about 20 minutes in the herd room (those annoying rooms at alot of Disney attractions where they get us to stand there for no apparent reason) then we were let in to see the show. One big thing I had a problem with here is the way they did it. They just opened the doors, and had everyone flood into the auditorium at once. I got separated from my sis/mom by a parent who had picked up their kid and held him like a bettering ram trying to get ahead of us. When I had to push past to get to them, I nudged the kid. The parent was all "Oh, hit the kids why don't ya." WELL. IF YOU DIDN'T RUN WITH IT LIKE YOU WERE GOING TO BASH DOWN FRANKENSTEINS CASTLE BATTERING RAM STYLE, WE WOULDN'T HAVE THIS PROBLEM. Also, alot of parents had strollers they used to push through people, but no kids were in them. The kids were being dragged behind the parents instead.

 

Anyway, awesome show. The bubbles from the ceiling were cool. Ursula was cool. The Ariel was cool. I loved the shadow cast they used during Under the Sea. By the time we got out, it was 7:00 and time to line up for the 9:00 show of Fantasmic.

 

Long wait. Lots of shoving. Worth it though. The place was packed. We were about 8 rows from the top, in the best villain section, Scar. The stadium did the wave. That was neat, I guess. Fantasmic is, and always will be, my favorite live show at Disney. The music is awesome. the use of villains vs good guys is awesome. Maleificent's Dragon form was awesome. The projections on the water was awesome. I really like the word awesome. It's really one of the best ways to describe Fantasmic. AWESOME.

 

Finally, we lined up for Rockin Roller Coaster. The 45 minute wait turned out to be nearly 2 hours. Thank goodness for Extra Magic Hours that night. The people behind us had their daughter go through the single rider line 4 times by the time we got into the building. Apparently the person at the fastpass was letting people with anytime fastpass go in. So people with 1:00pm passes were being let in at 9:00pm. Not cool Disney.

The people infront of us were cool. They were coaster enthusiasts, and were down from Sandusky, Ohio. Not like anything important is there at all. We talked with them for a bit, then we were finally let into the pre-show room. Not like we could hear it. D:

Finally onto the ride. We were in car 6, and got "Sweet Emotion" for our song. The launch was intense. My head got banged up a little, but the ride was too awesome to worry about that. After, while my mom and sister were in the gift shop, I re rode. I got in the very back with a guy my age, which was good because I narrowly escaped being put with cheerleaders. The song this time was "Back in the Saddle". Awesome ride.

 

Finally, it was time to call it a day. We hopped on the bus back to our resort, and slept.

 

....So that was alot of text. Sorry. ^^"

On to pictures!

Hollywod.

Even with incorrect spelling, you are acceptable on TPR.

That does it for this update. Reviews are loved. Good or bad.

I hear from a reliable source, finding dwarves at Disney is like Finding Nemo. (Omg bad joke. Sorry)

Now you too can experience "Fantasmic:The Line" at home.

Everyones favourite ride?

I predict a show back here soon.

Rather risque, eh Disney?

Star Bores.

Shiny, not written on, emptiness. I'm sure that's changed by now.

Hallo thar. You are new. You will never see me in you though. I don't like making people deaf.

Obligatory lobby shot.

Lookie! Dusty tables. In Disney, that kind of stuff is important.

More line-age.

It's one of those rides where you kind of wish there was a line, so you could see the rest of the queue.

Detail is amazing.

Oh hai thar. Even your signage is pretty.

This is next door to the supreme ride. Beware, barrage of ToT pictures to follow.

My favourite store.

More street performers. My sister watched them while we rode tower.

We waited 15 minutes to get this because little kids kept running infront so their parents could take their picture. So enjoy.

This ride = supreme win.

Fantasia reference = win.

Mandatory Hat. Check.

Oh...street performers. +1 for Disney.

Oh lookie. A guy driving a car through a crowd. Let's follow it.

The newest attraction at the park. Until Saturda, at least.

*insert holy angelic music*

Okay. So, does Florida have wild Turkeys? We found this amusing that there were two random turkeys on the front area of the resort. This one is named Bob.

The outlet area. The fountain was pretty at least.

[derek_lentz]

We missed the last MiLF show

 

Great trip report so far. I have to say though, Disney is really going risque with it's adult entertainment.