Mickeyhugger said:
Priscilla, you had to ask, so here is your requested trip report:
The TCDs invaded WDW for Spring Break 06 from March 25 through April 1st.
It had been about a year since we last visited the WDW theme parks. We have had Florida Residents Season Passes for several years, and believe it or not, the kids were getting tired of visiting WDW. We actually purchased Busch Gardens/Sea World passes for 2005, and also visited Universal Studios in 2005.
During Spring Break, we were able to visit the 4 WDW theme parks multiple times. There are a lot of new attractions which have been added in conjunction with the celebration of
Disneylands 50th anniversary.
The parks were very crowded all of the time during this trip. A lot of Florida schools were enjoying Spring Break, and it looks like WDW had become very popular again with the locals.
We had perfect weather all week. We were camping in our pop-up camper at Ft. Wilderness, which we have done frequently, but we have never had such nice weather. The nights were cool, usually in the 50's to 60's, and the days were warm, but not hot and humid, always in the 70's, and a couple of days in the low 80's. We did not get a drop of rain all week. Unfortunately, conditions are very dry here in Florida right now.
Ft. Wilderness is a great place to stay when visiting WDW. It is quiet and relaxing, and a great place to escape the noise and chaos of the parks. If you have never tried it, I strongly suggest that you consider it. In addition to the camp sites, they have really nice Cabins, which are a lot of fun to stay in. There are lots of activities at the campground, too. Our favorite is the Campfire and movie, which is held every night. It begins with a sing a long, and then they show a Disney movie on a drive-in movie type screen.
Here are the highlights of our visits to the new attractions in the theme parks:
Animal Kingdom- The new attraction here is Expedition Everest. It is a huge mountain (bigger than any of the MK mountains) with a roller coaster on it. There is a huge Animatronic Yeti figure in the ride. The TCD kids love roller coasters. They love Disneys Space Mountain and Rockin Roller Coaster, as well as Universals Hulk and Mummy, and Busch Gardens Shiekra and Montu. I mention this so that you will understand how much we liked EE. The TCDs rate EE as our favorite coaster any where. As resort guests, we also got to enjoy Extra Magic Hours. Each day, certain parks are open early or also late for resort guests. Some days there are EMH both in the morning and afternoon, other days it might only be morning or evening, but there was at least one park offering EMH each day. We were able to visit Animal Kingdom for an EMH on a Wednesday evening. I strongly recommend this. Visiting Animal Kingdom at night is magical. We were able to ride EE 10 times on that day!
EPCOT- The newest attraction here is Soarin when we visited the first day, we arrived in the late morning, and the stand-by line for Soarin was 120 minutes! There is no way that we could or would wait for 2 hours to ride any ride, so we took Fast Passes for this ride. We went over to Mission Space, which we all love. For whatever reason, MS does not draw crowds, so the line for this ride is seldom longer than 15 minutes. It is a really great and unique ride. The line for Test Trac was also long, so we decided to spend some time in the Innoventions pavilions. In Innoventions, there are several new displays. We stood in line to participate in a new attraction which is sponsored by the Plastic Manufactures of American, or something like that. It is a display where they convince you of how wonderful plastic is, and then you get to play an interactive computer game, and then you get to go into a room and build your own plastic robot (which you get to keep). This is a free attraction and you get a free plastic robot. What is not to like? I love plastic! So anyway, the reason I am mentioning this, is that after we waited to get into this attraction for about 10 or 15 minutes, the computer that one of my daughters got assigned to was not working. All of the other computers were taken, so if she wanted to play, she would have to wait until the next group was allowed to enter, which might be another 10 or 15 minutes. I just let her use my computer-no big deal. Well, the next thing we know, a cast member comes up and apologizes for the inconvenience, and hands me a piece of paper that is called a No Strings Attached pass. It has a picture of Pinnochio on it. I had never heard of one of these, but what it says is that it can be used to go to the front of the line of any attraction in the park. Sweet! So, we hightail it over to Soarin. Still a 2 hour wait. We show the pass, and are told to walk up to the front of the Fast Pass line. We do as told, and walk past hundreds of patiently waiting guests, all the way to the front of the line. Show the pass, and we are on the ride within minutes.
Soarin is a great ride. You are in a big theater with a huge curved screen in the front. You sit down in a bench type seat, and then are raised up while a movie is played on the screen. The seats are coordinated with fans and scent making machines, and they move with the movie being played. The effect is that you feel like you are viewing beautiful scenes of California by a hang glider. This is another great and unique attraction.
Well, after we ride Soarin we realize that we still have the No Strings Attached Pass. I thought that it would only be good for one ride, but no one collected it. So, we headed over to Test Track. Ninety minute wait. We show the pass, and go to the front of the line! Here, they did collect the pass from us, but we got to ride TT. That pass saved us from 3 ½ hours of lines!
Another new thing we tried at EPCOT was Turtle Talk with Crush, which is a new attraction in the Living Seas pavilion. Crush is the father turtle in the Finding Nemo movie. He is like a surfer dude. So what this is is a small theater in which they show an animated Crush. Somehow, they are able to make that animated turtle see who is in the crowd, and interact with them. The animated turtle makes expressions and movements that make this a pretty realistic experience. I dont know how they do it. It actually was a lot better than I expected. So, we are there in a room full of people, and who does Crush pick out of the crowd to talk to? One of the TCD daughters, of course. I think it might have had something to do with her hot dog hat. I guess Crush never saw one of those before. He asked Katie who she came to EPCOT with, and she said her dad, and then Crush wanted to talk to me. He wanted to meet the Dad who bought his daughter a hot dog hat. What? This turtle doesnt get out much!
We were also able to visit EPCOT for an EMH evening. That one ran from 9 to midnight. It was pretty crowded at the beginning of the night, but as midnight approached, we were able to walk on the attractions.
MGM Studios- The big new attraction here is the Extreme Stunt Show. I think it is called Lights, Motors, Action! It is a stunt show with cars and motorcycles. Not really a big interest to the TCD girls, but we did take a look. They have built a big impressive stadium for this show. There is a lot of action, explosions and fire. A very good and entertaining addition to the park. At the Studios, we were also able to see a display from the Chronicles of Narnia movie. That was pretty neat. It had costumes, props, etc., and the White Witch, or whatever her name is, pops in to scare every one. That was a neat little attraction. We were able to play Who Wants To Be a Millionaire a couple of times, which is always fun. I have never made it to the hot seat. I will one day. The prize they give away for the million point winner is a three night
Disney Cruise!
Magic Kingdom- Not a lot of new stuff for us here. We visited the new Stitch ride. It is basically just a re-do of Alien Encounter, but where there used to be a scary alien, now they have Stitch. We all thought the attraction was kind of boring. Too bad, they could have done more with this. I finally got the girls into the Hall of Presidents (they think it is boring) and got to hear Ws speech. I guess Ws been in there for a while, but the last time we were in there, it was still slick Willie. We have seen the Wishes fireworks show before, but I guess this is still kind of new. If you havent seen Wishes, it is definitely worth sticking around to see that. A great show.
Well, I guess that is enough. Bottom line is if you havent been to WDW in a year or two, plan on making a trip. There are a lot of new attractions. The parks are in great shape, and after having been away myself for a while, I have to say that over all it is still quite impressive how well themed and clean the Disney parks are compared to their competitors.
If you have any specific questions about the parks, fire away.
TCD
but I was up at the local bar shooting some pool and playing some darts and this guy said he was from your are!!! Something about a bar called West? He was a regional mgr for Dominos Pizza in charge of franchizes etc......
I am like the tom cat who had to be housebroken. I just have to spend my days looking out the window at the wild cats like you, and dream about what could have been! 
I'm sure Mrs. TCD had the same thoughts about you? 
