Could I have possibly brought any more winter clothes to Florida? Jan26-Feb2 THE POLY

[Saturn23]

Are you an obsessive over packer? Do you start checking the weather report a month before your trip? Do you make extensive lists and then revise them repeatedly? Is your suitcase always the one with the sticker saying "heavy" on it? If you answered yes to any of these questions then you're just like me.

It's funny, but I think the most difficult part of planning this trip was deciding what to pack. I know that sounds insane but the problem started with the weather on my previous trip which was the first week of December 06. I remember being really cold the entire time. The weather reports this time were all over the place so I had to keep changing my lists. In the end they were predicting that this trip would be even colder than the last, so I brought all the winter clothes I could possibly shove into one suitcase! As luck would have it, it turned out to be much warmer. So there I was with multiple wool sweaters, jackets, hats, scarves, gloves, boots, and not even one short-sleeved shirt! YAY! Before getting into all the details though, I should include a brief Disney history since I’ve never written a trip report before. (I would love to hear comments and suggestions if you’re reading).

My Disney History:

My first trip was with my parents when I was 9. We stayed off-site and only went to MK for two days during that week. I don't remember many details but I do remember loving The Haunted Mansion (my Dad tried desperately to get the CMs to smile but they just wouldn't crack! I was also completely amazed at the hitchhiking ghosts), Pirates (that hairy leg hanging over the bridge always stuck in my mind) and 20000 Leagues (I really thought we were sinking and in danger! I was such a nerd). I was also afraid to go on Space Mountain. I blame that on a bad first experience with a giant wooden coaster in the rain a few months earlier. I had to be dragged onto Big Thunder Mountain, which was actually a lot of fun and nothing like that horrible wooden coaster. (This fear was cured a few years later whe I became a thrill ride junkie). I don’t have many pictures from that trip that I can actually find, but I know people love old park photos so I’m going out on a limb by posting a very unflattering one:

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Things to note about this picture:
The lack of order around the characters, no lines back then
The giant park passport tied to my belt
The retro Disney World logo on the bag the lady behind me is carrying!

Please excuse the following things:
1) The Mickey ears that quite obviously didn’t fit. They were a gift so I wore them anyways. I remember trying to shove them onto my head constantly, but they would just pop back up .
2) The horrible look on my face as I squint in the sun. I guess sunglasses hadn’t been invented yet?
3) The socks with sandals! I take absolutely no responsibility for this. My Mom chose my clothes back then and she didn’t want me complaining about blisters. I realize I was probably too old for her to be doing that but I just had no interest in choosing my own clothes so I just didn’t bother with it.

My parents had fun at Disney but they weren't really into it. I think they felt obligated to take me on one trip and then never really wanted to go back. We did eventually return several years later for my younger sister's "one" trip. We went to MGM and Universal as well. We never did get to EPCOT. For some reason my parents didn’t pull my sister out of school for a pleasant off season trip. We went in August this time, and we waited in lines, lines and more lines. I remember a two hour wait for Back to the Future! Aaahhh!! I know this is going to sound like blaspheme on the DIS but I liked Universal better than Disney at the time (I know, I know, but it was the ride junkie in me that made me feel that way). I don’t have pictures scanned from that trip so just imagine a hippie-ish teen with an oversized Lollapalooza t-shirt and a really cute little girl wearing Minnie Mouse ears posing with some Mutant Ninja Turtles at MGM. (At least I think it was MGM).

The Disney love didn't start until I moved to California. I started going to Disneyland with my husband (then boyfriend) about once a month. I guess I drank the kool-aid as they say. I used to go to parks just for the extreme thrill rides but somehow Disneyland was different. I learned to appreciate all the other things that make the place great. We had very flexible jobs so we could take week-days off to go to the park, and in the off season those days were empty. That's when I became extremely spoiled. I tend to get cranky if there are too many people around. It’s not so much about waiting in lines, it’s more about not being able to navigate the pathways if it’s busy.

A few pictures of my sister and I at DL since I can’t get one from our 90’s trip:

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My husband and I have taken two week-long trips to Disney World, one in October 05, and the other in December 06. I’ll probably mention them a little in this TR, so I won’t talk about them now.

Next up: Our current trip, my husband and I with an occasional appearance by his parents. One week at the Polynesian, 6-day Park Hoppers and no meal plan!

 

[pezheadmeg]

As a fellow reformed nerd of the 80's I'm in.

 

[MagicAllison]

I like your writing style so far and I too remember the days of character picture posing with no lines while wearing socks with jelly shoes

 

[Saturn23]

YAY! I have readers

As a fellow reformed nerd of the 80's I'm in.

Haa haa! Don't you love looking at old pictures and wondering "what could I have possibly been thinking?"

I like your writing style so far and I too remember the days of character picture posing with no lines while wearing socks with jelly shoes

Thanks! Yeah, I wore socks with jelly shoes too, those things hurt so much they shouldn't have been legal!

 

[Saturn23]

Well, that wasn’t exactly a brief history, I’m sorry! Now back to the current trip. It was originally planned for just me and my husband Ken. Choosing a time to go was easy. The most important thing for me is going during the so-called off season so I just selected the week with the lowest crowd level on that website that comes up as a bunch of stars when I try to post it. I chose Jan 26- Feb 2 since it had the most 4's. I made sure I avoided the Marathon, MLK weekend, and Mardi Gras. Choosing a resort was also easy, Ken loves the Polynesian since he stayed there during his yearly childhood trips. I got to stay there for the first time last year and loved it as well. I also like being on the monorail route because it’s so convenient. I chose my parks and restaurants and dragged myself out of bed each morning at 180 days out to make all necessary ADRs. Boma, Kona, and Le Cellier were repeats because we enjoyed them before, while Narcoosee’s, California Grill, and Coral Reef were new. I was disappointed that Alfredo’s was no longer the same, since that was always a must do.

About a month later we found out that Ken’s parents (also Disney World fans) were going to be there for the second half of the trip. We decided to change the ADRs to include them in our dinners for the overlapping days. To my surprise, I was able to change four meals including Le Cellier and California Grill and still get the times I wanted even though we were way past 180 days I took this as a good sign of having chosen the right time to go!

Well, there was still one dilemma: meal plan or no meal plan? Our two previous trips were with the meal plan and we loved it. However, we were always full and felt like we couldn’t eat everything that was included. Last year we were left with two CS and 8 snack credits on our last day that we hasn’t used. There was never any room to eat the snacks between our meals and this year I wanted to try some of the things I had read about here, like the pastries in France, school bread and some of the fun girlie drinks I had seen. It was nice not having to worry about prices on the menus, but given the changes to the plan this year, it wouldn’t be as good of a deal as it used to be and we would have to eat almost everything included just to break even. That seemed like more stress than what it was worth. After several hours with sample menus and a calculator I decided to go without the meal plan. That way I could have an appetizer and two desserts instead of an entrée if I wanted, or we could try some signature restaurants that we hadn’t been to before.

Coming up: Last minute panic while reading the DIS. Nooooo! Not the dreaded “C” word!!! Anything but that!

 

[MagicAllison]

Cheerleaders? Am I right?

 

[nicoliosis]

i'm hooked. can't wait until your next post!

 

[BrittBritt]

You're leaving us hanging. Well, was it cheerleaders?

 

[dallasdisneymommy]

Count me in!

 

[Saturn23]

Cheerleaders is a good guess! But it’s actually a different C word…

and hello to the new readers

A few days before our trip I was on the DIS and several threads caught my eye. I knew I shouldn’t read them. Nothing good could come of a thread titled “What is going ON here?” I didn’t want to open it, I knew it would be upsetting. There was really nothing I could do about it, so why look? I told myself not to click on it. Don’t click, don’t click….



CLICK…



Noooooo!!!! I just HAD to look didn’t I?
Those posts were using my most hated word in the English language.
The one word that sends shivers down my spine.
I can barely bring myself to type it out ….
Here goes….



CROWDED….!!!.



I specifically chose this week to avoid such a situation. (Ok so I’m being a huge drama queen now, but you get the idea).

Our first trip in October of 05 was in the days before I knew about the DIS so I arrived there unaware of something called fall break. What’s a fall break? I never had one. How was I supposed to know half the country was out of school at the time? So I chose the first week of December for the next trip. That worked out well, but I assumed the Christmas decorations and other activities drew in some people. I got very greedy on my third trip, trying to find the absolute best time. There would be no holidays, no decorations, and no extra people. Unfortunately I didn’t consider the weak US dollar, the summer vacations that are occurring in other parts of the world, and probably several other things I don’t even know about. Ooops!

I was panicking at this point as I read about fast passes being gone by early afternoon, wall to wall people, hour long lines and tour groups everywhere. My husband and I are not morning people. We would love to get there by opening and run onto all the rides, but if we do that we’re tired and cranky for the rest of the day. Plus, that would give us a few hours of fun in the morning and then what would we do the rest of the time? We’re also not swimmers so we wouldn’t really be using the resort pool. We would just have to deal with the lines and hope that the late evenings would be better. Also, I figured a lot of the reports had to do with people taking the whole week off for MLK day and they should be gone by around Sunday.

Next up: Arrival at Disney – 5 hours late with no bags. Is my trip cursed?.

 

[pezheadmeg]

Yeah we get spoiled, I mean how can there be crowds in the off season?

Are you really leaving us hanging with the luggage drama?

 

[Saturn23]

Yeah we get spoiled, I mean how can there be crowds in the off season?

Are you really leaving us hanging with the luggage drama?

I know, January is supposed to be the best month, how can it be full?! Haa haa! You're right, the luggage wasn't the best cliff hanger given my TR title!

 

[Saturn23]

I never sleep well the night before a trip, but this time I didn’t sleep at all, not even for one minute. I started the day seriously sleep deprived. I won’t go into too much detail about our flight, but the short version is that it was delayed by several hours, and because of that we missed our connecting flight to Orlando. Luckily were able to get onto the next flight. Something similar happened last year and I learned never to book anything until very late on arrival day, regardless of how early we’re scheduled to get there.

We were going to take Magical Express to the resort but we had to collect our own luggage. Somehow we never got our yellow tags in the mail (that was a first). They were either lost or never sent because they’re still not here two weeks later. We weren’t even sure our bags were on the same flight as we were since we were bumped, so we waited at baggage claim for them. An hour later, only half the bags from our flight had been put onto the belt, while the other half were supposedly still on the plane. After another half hour Ken sent me to Magical Express to check in while he continued to wait, not knowing if our bags were even on that flight.

At this point I’m starting to panic because I had almost nothing in my carry-on. No change of clothing, no contact lens cleaner, no toothbrush, etc. It was going to make for a very unpleasant trip to Animal Kingdom the next day if I had to stumble around blindly in dirty socks. I made my way to Magical Express and joined the line without paying too much attention to how I got there. It turns out my panic was to be short lived, because I got a call from Ken telling me that the bags had arrived. YAY!! I was so relieved I wanted to turn around and hug the person behind me! That probably wouldn’t have gone over well so I just kept my happiness to myself.

Ken was still in baggage claim and asked me how to get to magical express. I told him “Go up the stairs, across the hall, and then down some more stairs”. That’s what I remember doing myself, but if you’re familiar with the Orlando airport at all, it’s obvious that those directions aren’t even close to accurate! Ten minutes later I get another call from him. “I can’t find you, I’m at Alamo, where is Magical Express?” I saw an Alamo sign way down at the other end of the hall, so I ran to it. No Ken in sight. I phone him back and it turns out he’s at the Alamo in the other terminal. (I had a flashback to the movie Best in Show where the couple met at Starbucks but not at the same Starbucks, at the Starbucks across the street from each other). My directions were really horrible so I can’t blame him. He finally found me and we got on the bus right away, tired and cranky, but happy to have finally arrived. Looks like the trip wasn't cursed after all

Next up: A room with a wonderful view, and dinner at Narcoosee’s

 

[Saturn23]

The first thing I noticed after stepping outside was that it was much warmer than I had expected. There was humidity in the air that wasn’t there the year before. I knew I was in some trouble if this was as cold as it was going to get at 7 PM. The sun had set and our trip to Disney was in darkness. It was also one of quietest Magical Express rides, because many people were sleeping. I didn’t notice until Ken mentioned it but our bus was going about 10 – 15 under the speed limit. We were getting passed by so many cars! We didn’t think we would make it in time for our 8 PM dinner.

Luckily the Polynesian was the first stop so we got off and went to check in. The CM was SO sweet! She even called Narcoosee’s for us to get our reservation moved an hour. I had just asked for a phone number so we could call ourselves but she did it for us We got a room in Fiji. It started to rain while we were walking to the room and two really friendly CM’s stopped to walk us there since they had umbrellas and we didn’t. All of these little things made us feel much better after being stuck at the airport for so long. (We encountered many CMs who went above and beyond expectations during this trip).

Our room was on the third floor and I was really excited to have a balcony!. I think we had an excellent view as well because we could see the marina just below us as well as Ohana’s, the volcano slide, the Contemporary and Space Mountain. Here are a few pictures we took that night and the next morning.

After resting for a while, we headed for the monorail. I always love my first ride of the trip because it means I've arrived. There was a Pirate and Princess Party going on that night so we shared a car with some pirates. We got off at the Grand Floridian and began our search for the restaurant. We had only been through the main lobby before but had never walked through the grounds, which were very pretty. We arrived at Narcoosee’s and checked in. We had about a fifteen-minute wait so we went out onto the deck where we watched the electrical water parade.

We were seated shortly after that and got a great table that overlooked the castle. Ken let me have the seat facing the window I had my first girlie drink of the trip, the Pina Colava (Ken thought the lava part was a typo):

Originally I was planning on having the scallop entrée, but since we were so late I wasn’t very hungry. I asked our waiter if I could have just an appetizer instead. He said jokingly ”no, I’m going to twist your arm and make you eat a whole dinner”. I had the mussels which were delicious! They were tender and fresh. Sometimes you can get a few that are really strong tasting but these were perfect. They were cooked in a white wine sauce I think and never ending! Every time I thought I was finished I would dig up some more. (Sorry no pics) Ken had the scallops since I wasn’t going to, and they were great as well. Luckily I didn’t get them because I wouldn’t have been able to finish them since the mushroom risotto that came with them was very heavy.

We split the key lime crème brulee for dessert. Ken said it was like regular crème brulee, but fun! (We love applying random Simpsons quotes to everything. That was a reference to the family going to Itchy and Scratchy Land when they sold Homer some Itchy and Scratchy money to use in the park, and said it was like regular money, but….fun….)

The best part was watching the P&PP fireworks! They piped in the music and dimmed the lights. It was beautiful and a great preview to the ones we would be seeing on Tuesday. That was the lucky thing about getting in so late, we got to eat at the perfect viewing time.

During dinner I was filling Ken in on the details of our days. I mentioned that we would be having dinner at the Poly on Tuesday and he started to laugh. He asked me if that was the online name for the Polynesian so I told him it was. Sometimes I forget what is common knowledge and what is board knowledge. He imitated me in his nerd voice, something between Comic Book Guy and Professor Frink.

Coming up next: Did we find the elusive off-season? And something SO incredibly rare… well, rare to people who love to sleep in that is!

 

[MagicAllison]

You had me laughing there a few times! That Best in Show movie cracks me up and it's no joke- on occasion I'll find myself standing in one spot on the sidewalk in DC and I can see 2 or 3 Starbucks! It's crazy! Our Simpson's joke is the "it tastes like burning". We say it when we've just eaten something we don't like.

So far it sounds like the Poly is the place to stay! Wow! They know how to treat their guests!

 

[BrittBritt]

Great room pics. It looks like you were just to the right of where we've stayed before. Love, love, love the Simpsons references!

 

[Saturn23]

You had me laughing there a few times! That Best in Show movie cracks me up and it's no joke- on occasion I'll find myself standing in one spot on the sidewalk in DC and I can see 2 or 3 Starbucks! It's crazy! Our Simpson's joke is the "it tastes like burning". We say it when we've just eaten something we don't like.

So far it sounds like the Poly is the place to stay! Wow! They know how to treat their guests!

Yeah it's crazy how many Starbucks there are. How many do they really need? I love "it tastes like burning". Ralph is the best. "And the doctor said I would get less nose bleeds if I could just keep my finger out of there"
Yeah, the CMs at the Poly were fantastic! They always said "aloha" whenever they walked by

Great room pics. It looks like you were just to the right of where we've stayed before. Love, love, love the Simpsons references!

Thanks! Yeah, I was really happy with the location. I think I'll ask for that area again if I stay there. Glad you like the Simpsons quotes because there are probably a few more coming up.

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been kind of busy but I'm hoping to have the next part by tonight.

 

[Saturn23]

Sunday Jan 27:

I had a hard time sleeping yet again and was lying awake that morning at around 7 AM so I wasn’t too upset when I could hear people talking loudly outside our door. I guess that’s the one drawback of being right across from the elevator. Ken slept right though it though and didn’t hear a thing! (It happened every morning and it never woke him).

Although I was awake, I just stayed in bed hoping to get a little more sleep. I finally got up at around 10 and got ready. I know what everyone is thinking now, that 10 AM is WAY too late to get up if you’re going to a park.

If I had to find one thing I didn’t like about our room, it would have to be the shower curtain. It was really stinky. It smelled like mildew so I kind of had to hold my breath while I was in there. I don’t now how bad it really was because Ken never mentioned it so he probably didn’t notice. If I ask him about it he would probably say that I’m just being a drama queen. I have a sensitive sense of smell though and I usually notice things that other people think I’m imagining.

Ken’s parents were supposed to join us on Tuesday but they lengthened their trip and arrived a day ahead of us. At first I was a little envious of their 10-day stay at French Quarter, but they only bought 4-day park hoppers and wanted to visit other parts of Florida as well so I got over it Ken asked if I could try to add two more people to our ADR for that night at Boma.

“What? You want me to make a same day reservation??? Don’t you know that’s just unheard of?”

I phoned the dining line anyways, thinking it was probably impossible. I talked to a nice CM who said it was no problem to get a new ADR for 6:10, just 10 minutes later than my original. I guess setting the alarm and dragging myself out of bed six months ago wasn’t quite as important as I had thought it would be. Maybe I was just lucky and there had been a cancellation. I’m going to go with that reasoning so I don’t regret my efforts.

We finally made it to the bus stop and noticed that there were a lot of people already there. I think most of them got on the Studios bus and there really weren’t many people left going to AK. The ride there was a little stressful because I was remembering all the posts about how full the parks were and wondering what we would find when we got there. I really wanted to get at least one ride on Everest and was hoping the line wouldn’t be hours long since FPs would obviously be gone (not that I’m allowed to complain about lines if I get there at noon). We got to the gate at around 11:40 and I was surprised to see so many people still entering the park that late. Although there were already people leaving.

After entering the park and listening to a bit of trivia from Pal Mickey, we passed the times board. Everest was listed as 50 minutes. I didn’t know if Ken would want to wait in a 50 minute line, but it’s my favourite ride so I really wanted to go on it, even if the line was that long. Yes, I love the ride THAT much!

I said to Ken “It says it’s a 50 minute wait, but I can’t read” - a reference to Homer buying Maggie a doggie chew toy for Christmas. “It says it’s for dogs, but she can’t read”.

It was my way of telling Ken that we should just ignore the fact that there was a long wait and go on the ride anyways, so we headed for Everest. How would we ever communicate without the Simpsons? (Sorry to those who don’t watch it, I’ll try not to overdo it).

We found a pleasant surprise when we got to Everest. It was 11:50 AM, and THEY STILL HAD FAST PASSES!!!! This I was definitely not expecting. We never managed to get these on our last trip, even arriving much earlier. They were gone every time. Not only did we get the passes, but they were for 2:10 – 3:10 PM, not even the last few of the day. Either Everest is not as popular as it was then, or this park was much emptier than it was last year!!! I was hoping it was the latter. We had been denied those fast passes last year so I just had to take a picture of them to mark such a rare occasion! (I know, nerdy).

We could tell by looking at the length of the line that there was no way it was really 50 minutes long. They weren’t even using the outdoor portion, you walked right from the covered area into the museum. Ken thought we should try it out, and then go to lunch afterwards. While waiting his parents called and said they hadn’t left yet but could meet us for lunch at 1 PM. I felt bad because they wouldn’t be able to get much done arriving at that time, unlike us early risers who were there at the crack of noon.

The line moved really fast and we were in the front row after only 20 minutes! I love the ride because it’s so smooth and you get such a great view going up the mountain. I could do without the backwards part since the turn makes me feel a little sick (not enough to skip the ride of course!). I love the hill that brings you towards the Yeti and the fast outdoor part afterwards. I’ve always wanted to film it but I never want to give up the enjoyment of the ride in order to hold the camera. I figure someone else has probably done it and it’s likely already on youtube.

After that we looked through the gift shop for a while. I wanted to get another Yeti t-shirt because I loved the one I bought last year. It's cute because the Yeti is all sparkly.

There were three others in the set in pink, yellow and white and I was hoping to see them again, but they were gone. There was a funny one that said “my next boyfriend will be a Yeti” but it doesn’t make much sense for me to wear that.

I considered buying one of these cuties but then remembered that all my other stuffed animals were just sitting on the floor collecting dust and they didn’t really need any new friends.

We still had time before meeting Ken’s parents so we took a quick ride on Dinosaur and then met them for lunch at Flame Tree BBQ. It seemed like such a random place to meet them for the first time since Christmas! They had just arrived at the park and hadn’t done anything yet.

Now this was one of those times that not having the meal plan came in handy: Ken and I split a BBQ pork sandwich since we had rather early reservations at Boma. I was excited because this would be the first time I would eat at Boma on an empty stomach rather than a full one. (Every other time I was stuffed from hoarking down a full plate of ribs, with corn on the cob, a side of beans and a key lime pie just a few hours earlier. Not exactly the best thing to eat just before a buffet). I couldn’t wait to try everything at dinner!

After lunch Ken’s parents wanted to see the safari. Unfortunately it had a 50 minute wait and the line wasn’t moving at all. I suggested we see it during the parade since the line would probably be shorter. We saw It’s tough to be a bug which was cute. The lighting was really good after the show so I got this picture of the Tree of Life

Then his parents walked the trails while we used our very rare Everest fast passes. I’ve never been through the FP line before so that was fun to see.

We met up with his parents in the trails. I love this guy:

The bats are really cool too, they’re HUGE.

For some reason I was under the impression that they closed the safari line at 4, so we got there at around 3:45. The line now said 70 minutes but it was moving at least. By 4:00 it moved much faster, probably because people were at the parade and not using as many fast passes. We rode in the last row and it was much bumpier than I remembered it. We passed by some horned animals that were standing unbelievably still. It was creepy, because they were so still they actually looked fake. After that the joke became that all the animals were fake. When we passed the tiger that was pacing back and forth Ken said “that’s not real, I can see the track he’s on”.

We made our way out of the park after that since it was almost 5 and we wanted to beat the bus rush for AKL. We stopped for a photopass and I got the baby Simba picture I wanted. (I cut Ken’s dad out for now because I don’t know if he wants to be posted or not).

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Next up: Dinner at Boma and MK EMH.

 

[Saturn23]

Before talking about Boma I just want to mention one more thing about AK, since the long line for the Safari was misleading. When we passed the times board I noticed that most attractions were listed as “see immediately” or had a 5 or 10 minute wait. Only Everest and the Safari were higher. Dinosaur didn’t even have FP machines turned on when we went there. We didn’t see any of the shows so I don’t have any info about how busy they were. We didn’t do many attractions that day because we’re at the point where we’ve visited enough times that we don’t try and do everything, just the things we like the most. I guess that’s why I don’t try to follow a touring plan, since I would skip some of the things on it anyways.

Now onto Boma!
This has been a must do every trip and I'm never disappointed.

I started with the coconut curry seafood soup. It was full of shrimp, scallops, mussels and pineapple. It was a little spicy but not too much. I think Mickey liked it too.

The salads are some of my favourite things here. The one on the top right is fruit salad soaked in what I think was a sweet vanilla sauce! It was amazing. I love sweet foods so this salad was perfect for me. Also the one towards the top middle has papaya and other tropical fruit and was particularly good.

The main course – I had mostly vegetables, cous cous and rice dishes with just a tiny piece of salmon. Everything was great, but the falafel was a little too hard.

Dessert - I think I’m going to start eating the dessert before the main course from now on since I never have room for enough of it. Two zebra domes, along with some other chocolatey goodness.

Ken’s Mom wasn’t feeling great, and after one of her trips to the buffet she came back with a few chicken nuggets on her plate. The three of us let out a resounding NOOOOOOOOO!!! You can’t fill up on nuggets at Boma!!! (That’s like filling up on bread ).

Afterwards Ken’s parents went back to their resort and we caught the bus to MK. On the way in we saw our first (and only) tour group of the trip, chanting as they followed their flag carrying leader. They were leaving though. We felt lucky because we didn’t encounter any of the problems I had read about here (no line cutting or pushing etc.). We got in line for wristbands and noticed that the CM wasn’t checking for resort ID. That was a first. It was probably because they were just by the main gate, but anyone could have gotten into that line.

Magic hours weren’t too bad, but there were definitely more people there this year than last (four times as many to be exact… just kidding, I didn't count them all). We went towards Adventureland first and there was no line for Jungle Cruise, so we rode that. Luckily we didn’t get wet, since that night was rather cold (probably the only cold night of the trip). We rode Pirates with no wait, but BTM was really full. They were using FP, but we didn’t have anything else to do in that area so we just went through the line, about 15 – 20 minutes. We headed to Fantasyland but it was still too early to do much there. I think we did Snow White since it was closing the next day. Space Mountain was down when we happened to pass by it, so we ran as fast as possible to the TTA. We were hoping to see the lights on in Space, but they were still off. As we passed the loading area we saw people approaching the rockets so we went back to Space after getting off the TTA. We made it before most people noticed that it was back up and walked all the way up to merge (they were only running one side though). I had a great time on Space! I sat in the front row which I think is the smoothest, and I could see track pretty well. I don’t think it was a dark as usual in there. Is it really smoother in the front? Ken says I'm just imagining it.

After Space the park officially closed and we headed out. We noticed the photopass CM’s were still taking pictures so we got one last one in front of a pretty castle.

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I tried taking some with my own camera, but the night shots always turn out so dark.

I can see it brightly on the screen, but then when I hold down the shutter release the image goes really dark. Is that normal? I don’t remember that happening with my last camera. This also happens if I have it set on night shot. (The camera is a Canon SD870is, my old one was an SD10 that I accidentally killed by taking a picture from the window of a plane The sun was WAY too bright. Never do that).

Anyways, if anyone has any photography suggestions I would love to hear them.

Next up: Starving at the Studios.

 

[Saturn23]

I've realized that the title of this trip report isn’t very reflective of the content anymore. In an effort to include something relevant to the title, I’ll mention a few things. The weather reports were predicting that it was only going to get warmer and warmer each day. As I looked into my suitcase I saw two wool sweaters, a jacket, two pairs of tights meant to go under my jeans, two hats, two scarves and two pairs of gloves. I’m not sure why I felt it was necessary to bring two of everything but apparently I thought it was important at the time! Lying at the bottom of the bag were my winter boots. I looked at them sadly as I thought of all of the summer shoes I could have packed in their place. Since I had gone to the trouble of lugging them all the way there, the stubborn side of me decided that I should wear them at least once, even though it didn’t make much sense to. It was going to be cooler that evening, so at least I wouldn’t be cold then. (After this trip I realized that I tend to pack in preparation for the lows, rather than for the highs). I get cold VERY easily and I prefer to be overdressed than underdressed. Ken looked at the boots and asked “you’re wearing THOSE?” He doesn’t usually bother trying to talk me out of the weird things I do anymore so we headed for the bus.

We were planning to spend the morning at the Studios and then go to Epcot for a late lunch. In the past, our Studios day has always been one of the least enjoyable of the trip. Our first time there was the day after I had dragged Ken to a very late concert at Universal the night before. We were tired and argued because our fast pass return times were conflicting with show times, we couldn't decide when to do what, and it became somewhat of a mess. In spite of this, I figured one morning there couldn't hurt.

We arrived there and found a great photopass CM who took plenty of pictures and really got into it, which made it more fun for us as well. He had us make Mickey ears with our hands and then told us that we didn’t look ridiculous at all. For our last shot we got to point to Stitch coming out of the ground.


I had seen pictures of Remi and Emille from the Studios on here, but shortly before our trip someone posted that they weren’t there anymore, so I sadly crossed that off my list of things to do at the Studios. I was disappointed because I really love Ratatouille. It's the first Pixar movie I've felt that way about since Nemo. I didn't like Cars at all, and I thought The Incredibles was good but not one of their best.

We grabbed FPs for Rock'n'Rollercoaster and then noticed that the wait for Tower was only 5 minutes. We walked right into the library. I really love this ride but sometimes the upwards motion makes me a little sick. It’s definitely not something I can ride repeatedly, as I found out when they opened the one at DCA! I learned that the hard way, and after three rides in a row and a day in the hot sun I felt like crap for hours I think I like the ride at the Studios better though because of the way the whole car travels forwards. We got a good sequence this time, fewer, longer drops and lifts instead of many short ones. I always spend some time in the TOT gift shop because it has such cute things. I almost bought a mug with Mickey, Donald and Goofy on the ride. I love merchandise with characters on rides for some reason!

We still had plenty of time to wait for our FPs so we looked for some food, thinking it would be too late to wait until we got to Epcot. One of my problems with this park is the lack of decent counter service meals. We ate at the Commissary last year and didn’t like it. We wandered around for quite some time trying to decide what we wanted. We considered Starring Rolls (I think that was the name) but the sandwiches didn’t look that great.

We decided to do RnR standby and then get to Epcot for some food as soon as possible to avoid crankiness and passing out from low blood sugar. The standby line didn’t look very long but it was deceiving. I had only ever used FP for this ride so I wasn’t aware that the standby line looped around the outside of the building before going into yet a separate room. It ended up being much longer than we wanted to be there. I finally saw the marble doors that people post pictures of though. The good thing was that while we were waiting I overheard the people behind us commenting on how many people had purchased front of the line passes. I told them that FP was free and that anyone could get them. They seemed pleased so hopefully that helped them save some time for the rest of their trip!


coming up: Choosing the slowest possible route to Epcot and what do you mean you LIKE Beverly?