Happy Birthday, Dear Dude - A Sept 2010 PTR - 9/22 Trip Report Started p34

[swwake]

It is hard to believe that in one week, at this moment, we will already be at Islands of Adventure and may have already ridden Forbidden Journey at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! It's 2pm Eastern time right now.

We will leave the house next Tuesday morning to head to the airport around 3:30am. I had to finagle some things with our house-sitter, and my sister will be by a couple of hours later to wake the dogs up, feed them and let them out.

We change planes after a short, 30-minute flight to Houston, then I'll nap on the 2 hour flight to Orlando. Once we have our luggage, we have a town car service who will pick us up and take us directly to Hard Rock Hotel. I doubt our room will be ready, so we'll check bags with bell services, get our room keys and head on over to Islands of Adventure.

By now, it should be about 12:30 and we'll be hungry. The plan is to stop at a kiosk or something for a quick, light snack, then bee-line it for WWOHP. If the line at FJ is 75 minutes or less, we will ride then. If it's longer, we'll explore the rest of Hogsmeade, and the rest of the IOA park, riding many of the attractions and taking it all in. We will also get a nice lunch. I am thinking maybe a late lunch at Mythos if we aren't feeling pressed for time, or at a walk-up counter service restaurant if we want to hurry back to see all that we can see. We will probably check back around 4pm to see how the FJ line is, if we didn't get to ride it earlier.

We may hang out at IOA, or if we get most of what we want to do accomplished, or if we're just feeling like it, we'll go ahead and head over to US for some of the headliners there.

The parks both close at 6pm, so we figure we'll finish up whatever we're doing at 6 and head casually out of the park. We will probably go to HRH to get our rooms, unpack a little, and check out the hotel before we go to City Walk for dinner.

My plan is Margaritaville for dinner, but if the wait is too long, or if something else strikes Chris or both of us, we can eat elsewhere. (I think resort guests get some sort of priority on the wait list. I'll have to check on that.) At least we'll stop in at Margaritaville sometime that night for a cocktail. Then we'll hang out at City Walk, or if we catch a whim, maybe explore HRH or the other two resort hotels and try to get to bed at a reasonable hour. We will probably be tired from the long day, and need to get up early tomorrow morning to get to IOA and be among the first to ride FJ!

Back in the present:
Tonight, I have to take care of the accounting for Chris's business, then I'd like to pull out my Universal book and consolidate all of the "Tips". I especially want to have a list of tips on where to sit or ride in each attraction for the "best seats" and/or "best view". I just feel like with only a day and a half at US/IOA and early park closing times, we may only get to do each attraction once, so I want to make sure we try to get the best experience.

Oh, and Chris is resisting on all of the water rides. He says he doesn't want to get wet and walk around all sticky for the next couple of hours. I told him to put on his board shorts and suck it up!

 

[lildamo]

Oh, and Chris is resisting on all of the water rides. He says he doesn't want to get wet and walk around all sticky for the next couple of hours. I told him to put on his board shorts and suck it up!

The great thing about HRH is how close you are -- plan to do water rides before either leaving the parks at the end of the day or leaving the parks for a short break and then you're within a short walk to go back and change! The water rides really are worth doing!

 

[swwake]

The great thing about HRH is how close you are -- plan to do water rides before either leaving the parks at the end of the day or leaving the parks for a short break and then you're within a short walk to go back and change! The water rides really are worth doing!

That's a great point! We can group all the water rides together.

Unfortunately, that won't work for the Disney parks But I can only really think of one wet ride at each of MK, DHS and AK and I can't think of any at Epcot. Maybe we'll do those late in the day whenever we're at those parks.

 

[swwake]

Wednesday morning, we'll get up early, pack, check out, and head to IOA at about 8am. We'll go straight to Forbidden Journey and ride once or twice. Then I imagine we'll get some breakfast before exploring the rest of IOA, including anything we didn't get to do the day before.

If we didn't have lunch at Mythos yesterday, we might try it today. Then at some point, it's back to US to catch all the headliners there.

We'll do everything we want to do at both US and IOA. From what I have read, this should be quite do-able with our Express line entry, and considering the crowds should be low.

The current plan is to leave the park around 6 or 6:30 and catch a cab from HRH to AKL. We expect to arrive at AKL around 7, check out our room, unpack, maybe have a cocktail in the concierge lounge, then we have dinner at Boma at 8.

Now, since our trip is flexible with very few plans, we may change it a bit. If we get all we want out of IOA and US, we may head to AKL a little early and hit Animal Kingdom for Extra Magic Hours from 5 to 8pm, then move our Boma reservation back a little, if possible. I am not sure what time sunset is, but everyone says to ride Everest at night. We may or may not get this chance, but this is the only night of our entire trip that AK has EMH.

After dinner, we will relax at AKL and finally get some rest. We have to be up early tomorrow morning!

I have checked the weather, and the 10-day forecast shows scattered thunderstorms Tuesday - Thursday and sunny on Friday. I am hoping this is just the tropical wave that we saw in August 2008, where it rains for a few minutes each afternoon. But with all the wet rides, maybe it won't matter much if it's raining. I just hope there's no lightning to close down the rides and attractions.

I am also watching for hurricane activity. There are no storms or depressions named as of now, and the satellite looks like there might be something off the coast of Western Africa. I doubt anything will bother us in the next two weeks in Orlando.

On the other hand, Tropical Storm Hermine (I think she should have been named Hermione) is wreaking havoc on Central Texas. We have had a ton of rain in the past 24 hours, and there is both standing and rushing water on roads and in ditches. Our gravel driveway has washed out. Our pool is flooded. Perhaps the worst is that my office has big leaks all along one wall, affecting my personal office, along with 5 cubicles along the windows. It's just a lot of water!

 

[swwake]

Thursday morning, we're up bright and early for the Sunrise Safari. We have to get to the Kilimanjaro Club lounge at 6:45am. I think we'll grab something the night before that we can snack on as we're on the way out the door that morning.

I expect the tour to last about an hour to 1.5 hours, then there's a breakfast buffet at Pizzafari.

After breakfast, Chris will go back to AKL to change into his "work" clothes, then have Alamo pick him up and take him to the Car Care Center to get his rental car around 10am.

I still don't know what I'll do at this point. I may stay at AK for awhile, or I might head over to DHS to see American Idol and, later, Beauty and the Beast, both of which Chris doesn't have much interest in. I might go do a Kim Possible mission or two at Epcot. Depending on how I feel, I may get in a workout and some pool time at AKL, or maybe even get a massage, if I can get an appointment. (I don't want to book in advance, because if I'm more interested in going to a park, I don't want to owe cancellation fees.)

Around 6, Chris should be back from his meetings with clients and prospects around Orlando. He'll change and we'll head to Epcot for our dinner at LeCellier. We are excited because we should be getting out of our dinner after the park closes at 9pm, so we'll get to walk through an empty park on the way back to the buses.

I guess we'll hang out at AKL for the evening, but we might decide to head over to DTD or maybe the Boardwalk, especially since we'll already be so close to it after dinner. I wonder how we would get back to AKL from BW later on? Maybe a bus to DTD, then another bus to AKL?

Oh, and we talked last night and I am making some changes to our ADRs today. I will post later when I have heard back from the IPO.

 

[Charleston Princess]

The Sunrise Safari is going to be so fun! I can't wait to see your pictures from it!

I think you will enjoy your solo day no matter what you decide to do -- having it end with dinner at Le Cellier with Chris will be perfect!

 

[Marshay]

Oh, I can't wait for your trip! I esp want to see pics of HRH and the HP section.

Your days sound great and busy!!

We just stayed at BWV and we only planned about 2 hours for the boardwalk and we should have planned more. There is a very funny magician; it's a great place to people watch. We went over to the Swan and Dolphin and checked out those hotels and pools, etc. We went into the dance club. We had a nice little date night.

You can take a bus to DTD and then get another bus to AKL but honestly, just get a cab. It won't cost that much (prob $10 or less) and will be a heck of a lot quicker, with less walking!

 

[Flossbolna]

You are really getting so close to your trip now!

For the question on how to get to AKL from the Boardwalk after the park closed: if you use Disney transportation your only option would be going via DTD, but this is quite a detour. This would be one the cases when I would splurge for a cab. It should not cost you more than 15 $ and I personally would enjoy my evening much more if I knew that at the end I won't spend possibly one hour in transfer on Disney busses. While they are pretty good in my opinion, they aren't that magical!

 

[swwake]

The Sunrise Safari is going to be so fun! I can't wait to see your pictures from it!

I think you will enjoy your solo day no matter what you decide to do -- having it end with dinner at Le Cellier with Chris will be perfect!

We are excited about it and I hope to take lots of pics. I think Thursday will be perfect too. We added something to Thursday night also. Check my next update to find out!

Oh, I can't wait for your trip! I esp want to see pics of HRH and the HP section.

Your days sound great and busy!!

We just stayed at BWV and we only planned about 2 hours for the boardwalk and we should have planned more. There is a very funny magician; it's a great place to people watch. We went over to the Swan and Dolphin and checked out those hotels and pools, etc. We went into the dance club. We had a nice little date night.

You can take a bus to DTD and then get another bus to AKL but honestly, just get a cab. It won't cost that much (prob $10 or less) and will be a heck of a lot quicker, with less walking!

I am excited about our daily plans, but our whole intention was for this to be a relaxing trip. Sounds pretty busy so far, huh?

We went to the boardwalk ini '08 since we were at BC. We enjoyed all the activities, magicians, etc. We went to Atlantic Dance Hall and it was D.E.A.D. We thought about Jellyrolls, but there was a reason we didn't go - either smoky, crowded, a cover charge, or some combination of the three.

Ok if we go to the boardwalk, sounds like we'll take a taxi back. But - I think we have new plans for the evening! Stay tuned.

You are really getting so close to your trip now!

For the question on how to get to AKL from the Boardwalk after the park closed: if you use Disney transportation your only option would be going via DTD, but this is quite a detour. This would be one the cases when I would splurge for a cab. It should not cost you more than 15 $ and I personally would enjoy my evening much more if I knew that at the end I won't spend possibly one hour in transfer on Disney busses. While they are pretty good in my opinion, they aren't that magical!

I know - 4 days! Crazy! I think you're right about a cab. But we may not need it! Check my next update.

 

[swwake]

Before we get to my "one week" details, let me update you on a few things.

As we were looking at the park hours Wednesday night, we realized that Friday night will be the only evening EMH for Epcot, and we had a Jiko reservation at 7:45pm that night. So yesterday I contacted the IPO, who canceled our Jiko and got us a reservation for late Sunday evening at Jiko. We think this is a good plan because, although it's the only evening EMH night for MK, we will be able to stay until midnight the night before for MNSSHP, and we have to get up super early Monday morning for surfing. So we think we'll want to call it an "early" evening. We made the reservation late, so we won't have to rush back from whatever park we're at that afternoon.

I tried to get Teppan Edo for Friday night, but they are booked. I will probably keep checking periodically, but if we can't eat there, it's not a deal breaker. We would be perfectly happy with one (or more) of the counter service options in Epcot (including sushi!).

Then, last night I was looking into the Main Street Electrical Parade. I am so glad they have brought this back, as it reminds me of my childhood. I think we had the cassette tape of the music and listened to it all the time. I love the music, and I'm super excited for the chance to see MSEP again.

I checked Steve Soares site for the parade days (but I can only get this week's days) and saw that it is only on Thursday, Sunday and Monday. Well, if those days hold true next week, we won't be able to see it Sunday, because we're eating at Jiko, and we won't see it Monday because that is evening EMH at DHS and we want to ride ToT at night. So Thursday is likely our only opportunity. So, now we have decided that after Le Cellier, we will stroll through an empty Epcot back to the monorail station, and take the monorail to MK for the parade. Good thing we got park hoppers!

Our dinner is at 8pm, so I am hoping we'll finish up by a little after 9. Does this sound reasonable? We might just barely get to MK in time for the parade (and I'm not sure which direction it runs), but we are thinking we'll just find a viewing spot near the entrance. This will be good for a quick get-away after the parade as well.

Now, on to One Week From Today:

Friday will be our first morning to sleep in. We don't have any specific plans for this day, but the crowd calendar says it's a good day for DHS and neither good nor bad for MK and AK. I think we'll play it by ear and just go where the day takes us. We will probably be at Epcot for the EMH evening (as I mentioned before).

I am looking forward to a relaxed day, with no particular place to be at any given time. Totally open to go to whichever of the 4 parks we want to visit. Wow - sounds amazing!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Loving your One Week From Today posts. I usually do them in my PTR's, but since I just fininshed my daily plans/outfits, I don't know if I'm going to do that. I'm sure I'll have plenty of other things to talk about!

 

[swwake]

Ok, I need some help and advice.

First, does anyone know how to get the dates and times of the MSEP? Looking at this week, it shows that it's Thursday night at 10, per Steve Soares, but next week the MK is only open until 9 on Thursday. Does that mean that we wouldn't be able to enter the gates after 9 just to see the parade?

Oh boy, this is stressing me out now! I really want to see this parade!

Also, I'm looking for advice on the Photopass pre-purchase. It saves $50. Last trip, we did it, but we had TONS of Photopass pics because my mom and the girls were with us. This time, it's just us. I am not sure how many pics we will want to have made. I think we will definitely want one in front of the castle. We might want some of the goofy ones where they add in stuff afterward. But I don't think we'll get as much use out of it with just the two of us. On the other hand, I'd hate to realize after the fact taht we want it and have to spend another $50 for it.

What do y'all think? Do you think we will use Photopass photographers enough in our relaxed trip to merit the cost? Do they sell the photos individually, and do you know how much they cost?

I have to admit one thing. The Photopass, even at $150, is a BARGAIN compared to the cost of the similar package ($350!!!) on Royal Caribbean. So either way, I am saving money, right?

 

[Dancegrl624]

I think you should do the photopass. It's so worth it! Even though you want to take a more relaxed trip, you could still stop at every photographer you see and there are plenty!

You can buy pics individually, but I know they're rather pricey.

 

[Marshay]

1) I probably wouldn't get photopass pics unless I was there for a full week or if I wanted this trip to be all about finding new photos.

We did the photopass for our July trip (as you know) and I love it. But for our 4 day trip in November, I know, we'll want to spend time doing and not waiting in lines and hunting down photographers.

2) Um, a relaxed dinner at 8pm and trying to get to the parade at 10pm is cutting it close. I don't think I would try to do that, unless you are taking a cab from BCV (walk there from Le Cellier).

If you really want to see the parade, then at least try to be in MK about 15 mintues prior?

Maybe you can just show up early to Le Cellier, too, and they might be able to take you in sooner.

3) I have a great site that lists all the parades, fireworks and park hours but I just saw it was down for maintenance.

It's disneytravelagents.com

Hopefully someone else will have one.

 

[swwake]

1) I probably wouldn't get photopass pics unless I was there for a full week or if I wanted this trip to be all about finding new photos.

We did the photopass for our July trip (as you know) and I love it. But for our 4 day trip in November, I know, we'll want to spend time doing and not waiting in lines and hunting down photographers.

2) Um, a relaxed dinner at 8pm and trying to get to the parade at 10pm is cutting it close. I don't think I would try to do that, unless you are taking a cab from BCV (walk there from Le Cellier).

If you really want to see the parade, then at least try to be in MK about 15 mintues prior?

Maybe you can just show up early to Le Cellier, too, and they might be able to take you in sooner.

3) I have a great site that lists all the parades, fireworks and park hours but I just saw it was down for maintenance.

It's disneytravelagents.com

Hopefully someone else will have one.

Thanks for the advice and info, Marsha.

I now have 1 vote FOR and 1 vote AGAINST Photopass. Still haven't decided.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see if we have time to get to MK Thursday night, if the parade is even running that night. If not, we'll have to make a Plan B.

I couldn't get into that site without a TA number

 

[swwake]

Sharing some old photos today.

My sister, Joann, me and our younger cousin Amy at Magic Kingdom. I would guess about 1973. Mom always dressed us alike. And we always hated it.

Me, my mom (in pigtails) and Joann on the carousel the same day.

There's Mickey in the 3 O'Clock Parade!

We are in front of the castle here, if you look close enough. And my aunt is the tall lady on the left.

My aunt with Amy and me on Dumbo.

Baby Katie dressed as Minnie. She was so tiny - only 6 lbs at birth.

Katie's 2nd Halloween, as Minnie

 

[Marshay]

Try this one:

http://www.disneytravelagents.com/S...pdf/ParkHours/WDW_Operating_Calendar_Sept.pdf

I'm not sure if that's the most current though...

 

[Charleston Princess]

Love the old pictures from Magic Kingdom!!! Katie was adorable as Minnie!

 

[Marshay]

Forgot to mention -- yes, riding Everest at night is totally awesome!! Riding at dusk is cool too, as there is so much to see when you are going up.

But at night when it's dark (there aren't many lights on Everest, so some places outside are D-A-R-K), it's terrific!! Even makes it a bit scary!

 

[swwake]

Try this one:

http://www.disneytravelagents.com/S...pdf/ParkHours/WDW_Operating_Calendar_Sept.pdf

I'm not sure if that's the most current though...

That one worked! Thanks! Even if it's not current, it's enough info for me.

Love the old pictures from Magic Kingdom!!! Katie was adorable as Minnie!

Aren't they fun? Thanks for the compliment on Katie.

Forgot to mention -- yes, riding Everest at night is totally awesome!! Riding at dusk is cool too, as there is so much to see when you are going up.

But at night when it's dark (there aren't many lights on Everest, so some places outside are D-A-R-K), it's terrific!! Even makes it a bit scary!

Ohhhh thanks for the great advice. We may have to try to squeeze that in on Thursday.