 |  |
| Discussion Boards | Reviews | News | Trip Planning | Shop | Travel | Site Map |
| Disney Trip Report Archive An archive of reader-submitted trip reports | |
| Alex Stroup, editor | Search just the Trip Report Archive. |
|
Lori Friend -- May 2002 -- Walt Disney World (ASMoR)May 24th thru June 2nd 2002 Members of our Group:
Also went with Keith's sister and family but did not stay together the whole time. This was their first time to WDW and they stayed at All Star Music:
May 24th: (Left home for Florida - yes we drove.) We picked up Amber, the 7 year old, an hour early from her last day of school. We got her on film asking her "Amber, you just finished 1st grade, now what are you going to do??? She yelled back "I'm going to Disney World!!!." It was very cute and a great way to start our trip. We then began the long journey in our van from the Dallas/Ft Worth area to Disney World. Our first stop would be in New Orleans. We arrived late that night and stayed in a very nice hotel thanks to hotwire (This is a service on the internet to buy hotel rooms at a cheaper rate). May 25th: (New Orleans and travel) We awoke early the next day and spent a few hours in New Orleans. We went to the Aquarium of the Americas and then walked Jackson square before heading out to Tallahassee. We traveled about 7 hours this day and stayed the night at Tallahassee. After dinner, the kids got to swim so that was a nice break. May 26th: (Finally make it to Disney World) We left Tallahassee early and arrived at the All Star Movies at around 1:30. Check-in was fast and our kids loved watching movies while we waited. Our room was ready this early but my sister-in-law's room was not so we hung out in our room and ate a snack and then walked the grounds to check out the hotel. We stayed in the Toy Story Building #9 and thought it was great. We were on the courtyard with Buzz and Woody and it was definitely our favorite building. It was a little walk to the swimming pool but not bad at all. We loved seeing the rest of the buildings and walking the grounds. The kids especially liked the water shooting out of the ground near the Herbie the Lovebug building. They played there for a while. We had 5:30 PS at Chef Mickey's for the whole group so after Christy got her room we headed out at about 4:30. We drove the van and went to the TTC to take the monorail. Everyone enjoyed the ride but the Contemporary hotel was the last stop and it took us a very long time to get there. It was right at 5:30 when we stepped off the monorail and after a wait in line it was about ten till six. We got in right away and had our picture taken. This was a fun time and we took lots of pics with the characters. Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Pluto and Chip and Dale were all there. After dinner we headed over to Disneyquest. This was fun, although there was not as much for my kids there. My daughter liked the Buzz Lightyear bumper cars, but my son was too short to do them and was upset he could not do the cars. We all did the virtual jungle cruise and thought that was fun and then we spent at least an hour on the computers in the creative/art center. The older cousins really enjoyed making their own roller coaster and riding it, but again mine were to young for that. The lines were short though for on a Sunday before Memorial day and everyone seemed to have a good time. I do not think I would pay separately to go here again however. Not unless they add some more attractions. Definitely seems better for the older than 9 crowd. After Disneyquest, we stopped off at the World of Disney and bought my son an autograph book and my daughter a hand held game. I read about these hand held games before the trip and wanted to get one for her. New little video games activate when you get on certain rides. She had fun activating the games and playing them in line. We really needed the autograph book before Chef Mickey's but I forgot and got in trouble with my 7 year old. After this quick shopping trip, we went strainght back and went to bed. We had Epcot in the morning and needed some rest. May 27th: (Memorial Day at Epcot) - We arrived at Epcot via bus at 8:45 and the lines were not bad. Surprising for a holiday. However, we waited on my sister-in-law until about 9:10 and the lines grew extremely quick between 9:00 and 9:10 so we went on through security and the lines on the right for Guest and Cast members did go quickest. Christy and family arrived around 9:15 and still got through security pretty quick. We all walked straight to test track and got fast passes for a return time of 10:15 to 11:15 and then we headed over to "Honey, I shrunk the audience". There was no line at all here and we walked right in and enjoyed the show. I was bummed though that the imagination ride was not up and running yet so we headed over to the Land and did the "Circle of Life show". This was cute but very politically correct. I think we could have skipped it and been fine. We then hit the innovations building and checked it out for a while. It was fun. After this, we headed back to Test Track to honor our fast passes. Christy's group went on first while our little family looked at the displays in the building. It took them awhile to get on the ride as it was having problems that day. My husband and I rode it after they got off. It took us even longer to get on as it started sprinkling while we were in line and then the ride stopped due to problems two more times. It even stopped again while we were on it. They ran it again for us so we could experience the ride without any stops. This was definitely our longest line of the trip and both parties experienced waits due to problems. The ride itself was fun but short after the long wait. This was our only real wait with fast pass. During our ride, the others went to the other innovations building and the Garden show. They said it was a good time killer. These buildings are great to do while waiting on fast passes. The best thing we did on our trip was to pack our own lunches. This saved us money and time. After Test Track, we all sat down and ate our lunch under some trees. It is very important to pack sandwiches in a plastic container and bring plenty of water. The weather was nice this day with temps only in the high 80's so lunch was nice. The security guards did joke about our lunches but did not stop us from bringing them in even though it says it is not allowed. After our rest, we went to the Energy building and did that ride/show and then we did spaceship earth. Everyone seemed to enjoy these rides. We walked right onto both these rides with little wait. Epcot was the right choice for Memorial day. The crowds were not bad at all. Christy's boys, however, were a little disappointed at this point. We really needed to inform them that Disney World was not about fast and furious rides. They even thought test track was not fast enough. They got in the spirit later however, when they realized that this was not about big roller coasters. I did not want to get sick on body wars so we headed for Mexico. The two year old fell asleep in his stroller and some of us went in Mexico and did the boat ride while he slept. This was just an OK ride but fine to kill some time while he was sleeping. It was also a short line and had air conditioning. We headed on to Norway where my seven year old did the Kidcot center. This is great for her age. She made a mask and had a good time getting her autograph book stamped and mask stamped in each country. A don't miss for little ones. We also took an ice cream break while she did this. It had been a little over an hour so we woke the little one in line and rode the ride at Norway - Maelstrom. It was a fun ride. The boy's approved and it did not seem to scare my younger ones even though it was dark. We tried to do this again later but it was shut down due to technical problems. (I hope these tech problems are just at Epcot). We walked some of the other countries and bought some souvenirs and did the Kidcot centers. My son really enjoyed the train in Germany. He loves trains and he spent some time watching this. The town was neat but my husband and I really thought they needed some more cars on the train itself. It is worth a stop however if you are a train buff. After going through the countries we found a spot for the 5:30 parade. For parents of young children, the dream people will take a dream spot from your child at the beginning and end of the parade only. We missed them at the beginning and my daughter was worried thru the whole parade that we had missed them altogether. This was a good parade but I would rate it as last compared to the others we watched. I am just a character parade person and this one had lots of cool large puppets, but also a lot of repeats of the same puppets. After we did the parade, we did a couple of more countries and then rode the boat across the lagoon. We headed back and ate dinner at the resort snack bar. This was reasonably priced and had good choices for kids. We bought a $10 cup and shared it. I am cheap so I don't think I would buy more than one. We played in the courtyard at Toy Story a little and then went to bed. May 28th: (First day at Magic Kingdom) We woke up and arrived to Magic Kingdom at about 8:45. The security lines went fast and we were in the park a little before 9am. We decided to split with Christy's group this day due to different ride interest so we did not wait. We headed straight to the Dumbo ride and had to wait about 15 minutes but that was not bad. The kids loved this ride. After Dumbo, we hit the Pooh ride with no wait and came out to meet the characters Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore. The kids loved getting their autographs and our two year old did great with them. After this we hit the other Fantasyland rides - Peter Pan, the Carrousel, Small World and Snow White. The kid's loved all of these rides - they were the perfect age for these and I loved seeing their expressions. The only one we had to wait on was Snow White and that was because it was after 10 by that time and the crowds were coming. After watching the Sword in the Stone show, we left Fantasyland for Liberty Square and the Haunted mansion. This scared Amber a little but not bad. After the mansion, we rode the raft to Tom Sawyer's island. This was really a nice break. Lots of trees from midday sun and the kids really liked playing and exploring the island. We then ate our sandwiches we brought on the deck outside Aunt Polly's and had a good long rest. I suggest the island for a nice break from the parks. We rode the raft back and checked out Splash Mountain. Amber is scared of heights and still had not decided if she would go. We got some fast pass tickets just in case. While we waited, we went to the Country Bear show, looked around and took some bathroom breaks. The kids liked the show and the Adults like the cool almost nap inducing air conditioning. When we were done, we decided to stake out a shady spot for the 3:00 parade. While waiting, I noticed that our time had almost reached two hours on our fast pass for Splash Mountain. So I sent my husband to get us another fast pass for the Jungle cruise while we waited about 30 min. for the parade. This is the time to get fast pass tickets - While you are waiting for parades or shows. We did this several times and it saved us a great deal of time. We watched the Globe parade and it was wonderful!!! Then we headed over to Splash Mountain. Our two year old fell asleep in route and I sent Keith and Amber to try the ride. After a very long time, they came out. She was just to scared to try it. After much coaxing, my husband just gave up. He said they did not have a wait at all. He just spent a lot of time trying to convince her to try it. The two year old was still napping and needed some more time, so we stopped at the ice cream shop in the Diamond Horseshoe Saloon show. It was hand dipped and wonderful. We ate ice cream and watched the show from the back so we could also watch the stroller. This was again a cute show and nice break with some cool air even in the back. We headed over to Adventureland and woke Andrew up for our fast pass return to the Jungle cruise. We liked this ride and since we had just watched Swiss Family Robinson not too long before our trip, we also liked the treehouse. The fast pass was very helpful on the jungle cruise. There was a bit of a line here and we went on through. No line really on the treehouse. We did the pirate ride and caught the last Tiki Bird show. I did not like this show at all. I hate Iago, the bird from Aladdin, and it just yelled at me through the whole show. They need to go back to the old show or give ZaZu more lines. Just before we left, we did the Alladin's magic carpet ride and loved it. My kids liked all the "Dumbo" type rides like this and we seemed to luck out on lines. We left Magic Kingdom after this at about 6:30 or 6:40. The park was closing early at 7pm that night and we wanted to beat the 7pm crowd. We decided to send my husband to the McDonald's on property to save money for dinner. Surprise!! Mc D's had upped their prices so that it was about the same as the food court. We ate in our room and then took baths and went to bed. My kids liked listening to the Bell's Story time at bedtime. May 29th - (Cinderella's Castle Breakfast day, MK and Fantasmic) -- We were up bright and early to catch the 7:30 bus to Magic Kingdom for our 8:20 breakfast reservations. This was the coolest. I loved the way it was decorated inside the castle and the way the etched windows looked out on Fantasyland. They called my husband and I, Lord and Lady and the kids, Prince and Princess. The waiter spoke in an English accent and said we could have "Anything our heart's desired". We saw Cinderella, Prince Charming, Belle, Sleeping Beauty and Mary Poppins. It was worth getting up at 6am and using 5 phones (our house and 4 cell phones) to call and get a reservation. We got in the castle a little early and we were done by about 9 am. The food and service were great and it was very memorable. After the castle, we went straight to the Teacup ride and it seemed as if no one was in the park but us. After the teacups we did the raceway and the line was starting to grow there fast. We headed to Tomorrowland and got fast pass tickets to Buzz Lightyear. These were a must for this ride. While we waited for Buzz, we did the TTC twice. The kids loved this ride and since Amber refused to go on Space Mountain (no roller coasters for her), she still was able to see inside Space Mountain. We then went on Buzz and loved it so much that we got off and got more fast pass tickets. Even though our time was not up yet the machine gave us more tickets. We were not sure why but hey. While we waited for our time again, we went to see the Madhatter and Alice at the Teacup ride. We had to wait awhile for them but the kids liked seeing them. We also took a break and ran into the talking trashcan. This was a robot that looked just like one of the park trashcans and it was great fun. It walked up to my daughter and said "You have pretty hair...I wish I had hair... I would look good with hair." After this encounter, the kids had to check every trashcan in the park. This was one of the highlights. After our break, we walked right on Buzz Lightyear without any wait. You have to love those fast passes. We left Tomorrowland at this point and it was extremely crowded here. I thought this land was the most crowded we visited our whole trip. We headed over to Toontown and while Keith and Andrew rode the coaster, Amber and I went through Minnie's house. We all went through Mickey's house and saw the mouse. After coming out of his house, there were a ton of characters. If you are into characters, this is a good place to go, and you don't have to see Mickey to get to it, just go behind Mickey's house. It looked like the characters were on 10 minutes and off 10 minutes. We had planned an afternoon break and so we said goodbye to Magic Kingdom. On our way out, Amber really wanted to ride the Monorail again. So we decided to go back via Monorail. We tried again to ride up front and passed a crowd of about 40 people and walked to the front just by asking. This was cool. Dad really liked it a lot! We rode back to the TTC up front with just us and the pilot. We did have to catch a bus to Animal Kingdom from there to get back to our resort but it was worth it. We headed back to the resort for a quick lunch and nap. I think the adults needed this more than the kids. We slept from about 2-4 and got up for 5:30 PS at the Sci Fi drive in restaurant at MGM. We got to MGM just in time but had to wait about 30 minutes for Christy's group. Their bus was slow getting them to MGM. The people were nice at the Sci Fi and seated us right away even though we missed our PS time. This was a fun restaurant. It looked like a drive in and the cars were the tables. It played cartoons and little bits of old sci fi movies. We were still full from lunch so ordered dessert. The appetizers and desserts were around $4-5 and kids meals were around $6-7 so it was reasonable. Go there for dessert and catch the experience. It was fun. We left the Sci Fi around 7:15 and checked out the New York Street. It was then we noticed the crowds heading for Fantasmic and decided we better join them. We saved seats while the males in our group went to ride the Tower of Terror. There was only a 10 minute wait at the Tower of Terror because of the Fantasmic show. I was amazed it was only 7:30 and the stadium was filling up fast. We bought some snacks and waited it out. Amber's little hand held game came in handy here. The show started at 9pm and was great!!! I truly say it was worth the wait. The bus line after the show was definitely the longest line we waited in the whole trip, but we finally made it back and collapsed into bed. May 30th - (MGM Day)We hit MGM bright and early the next day. We probably hit it too early. This was the only day we felt tired in the morning at a park and I think it was attributed to the late night before with Fantasmic. Not a whole lot was starting at 9 am at MGM. We did not want to do the roller coaster or Tower of Terror because Amber really would not like them, so we headed off to the Muppet show at the back of the park. It was completely empty. Just us and a few others. We ran to grab Fast Pass tickets to The Little Mermaid show which seemed to have a long line the day before. We then hit the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground. Our little ones loved this and it was good to do in the morning before the shows started. MGM is a show park and we planned most of our day around shows. After some time in the playground, I went to save us seats for the Indiana Jones show, while Keith and the kids stayed for a while at the playground. There was a big crowd and I was scared I could not save seats. I just ignored the move on down requests and saved us a small space with no problems. Keith arrived just in time for the show with the kids and we hooked back up with Christy and family at this show. After Indiana Jones, we headed over to Little Mermaid and walked right in. I love this show!!! The laser effect is great!! We met up with Christy and gang at the One Man's Dream Attraction and saw the film there, which was interesting. We tried to go to the Millionaire show and were a little late so decided on a lunch break. We found a picnic table in a shady place and were amazed at the number of characters at this park. We then headed off and got millionaire fast pass tickets and rode the backlot tour. Andrew fell asleep here and slept through the whole thing. I tried to keep him asleep as we made our way (should I say ran to meet the FP time) to the Millionaire show. He woke up in this show and I had to leave halfway through. This was really our only bad two-year-old experience. Everyone who stayed really liked the Millionaire show and had fun with it. We decided on an ice cream break and another promised stop at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground. This was a needed break for Andrew and all liked the ice cream. We then caught the Great Movie Ride and Amber really liked this one. We then ran to catch the Beauty and the Beast show and were one of the last there. We had to sit in the really hot seats in the back. It was still a good show - Just really really hot!! The parade time was coming up and I had heard how good it was so really wanted to see it with the kids. Christy's group really did not want to see it so they opted to do the Animation tour, which is a really neat tour. We split up and we sat down for the parade. The ground was really hot so we broke out the umbrellas for shade. I loved this parade!!! Lot's of characters and the kids were fun to watch. After the parade, we ran over to the Playhouse Disney 6pm show. We were in the back of the line but so many can fit into this room on the floor that we had no problem getting in. This show was a little beneath Amber but they both really liked it. I would say it was more the 5 and under crowd but Amber still watches Playhouse Disney so she liked it even though she said she was there for Andrew. We met up with Christy after this show and the weather was looking bad. We decided to leave for dinner and beat the rain. It actually did not rain until 9 pm that night and back at the hotel we thought of those poor people who were waiting for the Fantasmic show that was certainly rained out right at 9pm. May 31st - (Animal Kingdom) We awoke and packed our room up since we were checking out this day. This made us a little late to Animal Kingdom. We finally arrived due to some slower bus service about 9:20. Christy and her gang actually beat us there, which surprised us since they are not early risers. They were already on the Safari ride so we headed that way. We had a little line but not much. After our Safari, we all got together and went to the Lion King show. We saw Turk on the way and Amber liked that. This was a fun show. The way the stage comes out and goes together is really neat. While I saved seats to this show, my husband had gotten the whole group FP tickets to the Dinosaur ride so we headed over there after watching the show. We stopped off to ride the Tricera Top Spin while Christy's gang rode the Primeval Whirl. As I said, our kids like these "Dumbo" type rides. We all then headed over to the Dino ride. Amber tried it and actually did not get scared. I got scared. There were really mean dinosaurs chasing us in this Jurassic Park type ride. Andrew was too short to go on this ride by about 1/4 inch and it probably was for the best. We did the switching off here and some of us rode twice. Don't get me wrong, the special effects were great in this ride and it was one of my favorites even though it was scary. We stopped for lunch after this at the Restrantaurous and ate McDonald hamburgers that were better than McDonald hamburgers. We stopped by the Dinosaur ride and grabbed another Fast Pass even though there was only a ten minute wait (Why wait the ten minutes - we are very spoiled). We ran to catch the Tarzan show. This show was a disappointment. I thought there would be more skating and skateboarding type stuff. However, the main focus in this show is the singers and while they were good, I wanted more action. I will skip this one in the future. We went back to the Dinosaur ride and did it again. Amber still kept her eyes shut but was very proud of riding this "big kid" ride. Christy and I had spotted some ice cream we wanted so we all took an afternoon ice cream break. This park was really nice with the big shade trees and animal exhibits everywhere. It was fun to walk around. After ice cream, we decided to catch the It's Tough to be a Bug show in the Tree of Life. First we walked around the tree and really looked at it. It is amazing with all the animals carved in it. The bug show was a must. We all liked it a lot. We were all pretty tired and saw most of what we wanted to see so we decided to leave early. I think I will explore this park a little more next time I go but with a large tired group it is hard to squeeze everything in. We saw Chip and Dale and Baloo on the way out and took some pics. I felt sad to leave cause I knew it was our last day. I told my husband that next time we stay at the parks at least 8-10 days so we can have a waterpark day and some other rest type days, but still get to do all the rides and some restaurants. We grabbed Dinner that night and stayed at an Orlando hotel. June1st and June 2nd - Traveled back to Dallas. I had some post Disney blues but it has been fun sharing the trip with friends and family. Tips... Tips.... Tips
Favorites -
Lori Friend keith@friendfamily.net Mail a Comment to Lori Friend |
|