peteywarren0829
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2015
Okay DISsers, I finally did it! I went to Walt Disney World, and now I have a lot to talk about.
Our Vacation was from May 29th.- June 5th. I dived in and did as much planning as I could before leaving. I reserved our rooms and tickets online before we left. I had our fast passes lined up along with some ADRs prior to leaving. Since I have become disabled in my right leg, I spent a lot of time debating whether or not to rent wheel chairs, motor scooters, etc. I would up buying seated walker before leaving for our trip, and it was a Godsend. I had speculative plans lined up for the trip, and we were ready. We decided that an 11 hour drive would be cheaper all around than a flight, so we left at 2:00 AM CST on the 29th, headed for Orlando. The one thing that we really hadn't planned for though was my wife coming down with something horrible that she is just now, about a month later, starting to kick.
I have nothing but great things to say about Art of Animation. I have been able to spend time in a wide variety of very nice hotels in my life, and Art of Animation took my breath away. I understand that people always look for something different, but the Larger than Life themeing was just fantastic. There is nothing like standing next to a 4 floor tall statue of Ursula. We stayed in the Little Mermaid section in the Ursula building, and the absolutely only complaint about the location is the walk to the main building. However, because we went through the Lion King section to get to the food court, we found ourselves in generally a good mood at meals, usually singing Hakuna Matata. The food court lives up to its reputation. All of the food was great, although the Tandori dishes just weren't for me. Also, we did notice one of the only consistent knocks against the Magic Kingdom. The chocolate everywhere just tastes off. I got used to it by the end of the trip, but it was extremely "waxy" tasting.
The pools were great. My children LOVED the fact that all three pools topped off at 4'11'' so they never had to worry about their shaky swimming. We actually preferred the Cars pool to Big Blue though. I got the impression that Big Blue would have some voices and Nemo themed music underwater. It is quite a trip to swim underwater to Mack the Knife though. Over all the Cars pool was almost always the least crowded, and my kids made sure we swam EVERY day.
Because my wife was so sick, we had a hard time getting early starts, so we wound up driving everywhere. I really can't comment on the quality of Disney's transportation.
Downtown Disney was sort of a waste of time for me. The Lego store was incredible with its amazing statues outside, and World of Disney was interesting, but my kids weren't into it, my wife was a bit miserable, and the crowds were too much for me. I wasn't sure about going there late afternoon on a Friday, so next time we will try it during the week, and hopefully my wife won't be have dead with walking flu.
Our day at Hollywood Studios was incredibly strained. It was Saturday on Star Wars weekend, so we expected the crowds. We got there just a few minutes after Rope Drop. We found out quickly that Rock-in Roller coaster was down for the day. We got in line early for the Tower of Terror. After getting to the door, that ride was closed too. We decided to give the Great Movie Ride a try, and it was pretty fun, although of course my son freaked out at the Alien... Tower of Terror reopened and we caught that quickly enough. As an old Twilight Zone fanatic I loved the ride, panicking kids and all. We ate at the Pizza Planet, which was surprisingly very good. We then got Midway Mania and Disney's Museum, which I found completely fascinating. Star Tours was also so much fun. I wanted to do so much more, but the rain was relentless. During the few breaks in the weather, the Star Wars touches were great. The Storm Troopers and their banter was by far the best Star Wars stuff. I felt so bad for people who came for autographs though, because the rain kept shutting the sessions down. Overall, we had fun, but the day was kind of a let down.
Magic Kingdom though, wow. Even my best expectations did not prepare me for just what we were in for. We got there a little late, 9:30ish, and my kids had to potty, then they wanted to ride the carousel, so my day's plans were thrown off. But, there was so much, so we kept at it. Our first experience was Pirates, and man, that was a great way to go. We then hit Splash and Space Mountain. We grabbed lunch at Columbia Harbor House, which was fantastic. We got the Haunted Mansion and then hit Space Mountain. The People Mover was a great break from the heat. We then went to the Laugh Floor and Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. The Laugh Floor was way funnier than I thought it would be. Space Ranger spin shut down 6 times on us during our ride. It just wasn't worth the wait. We started wrapping our day up with Pete's Side Show meet and greats. That was when Disney really hit me. I left with tears in my eyes and a smile on my face, explaining the concept of a side show to my children. We decided on the way out to go ahead and ride Pooh and the Teacups. Winnie the Pooh's ride is probably my favorite ride of the entire trip. I really could forget about the entire world, and I remembered a lot of happy memories from my childhood. The Teacups were a really solid end piece to a fantastic day.
The next day wound up being an off day because my wife just couldn't bring herself to go out.
After a day of rest she started to perk up a bit and we hit Epcot. Living with the Land was fantastic for us seeing the produce that they were growing. We then hit Soarin', and it completely lived up to the hype. My wife said it was her best ride of the entire trip. It was superb and the kind of experience I would recommend to everyone. We tried Nemo's ride and the Aquarium, with the Aquarium being better. Turtle Time with Crush was great. Spaceship Earth was impressive for us all. We did the meet and greet with Mickey and Pals, and then there was Journey into the Imagination with Figment. This was our surprise ride of the trip. It was funny and a load of fun, except for that one smell... A lot of people harp on this one, but it was way better than expected. It started raining again, and the kids got pool hungry, so we stopped at Club Cool for a few minutes and then called Epcot a day.
Our next day we went back to Epcot to give the World Showcase a walk through. We wound up using our fast pass + to the best advantage that day. We FINALLY remembered our autograph book, so we got Mickey and Friends along with Chip and Dale, plus another go on Figment and Spaceship Earth before 11:00 AM. We also did Mission Space. We did the mild version of the ride, but it still was a blast. We checked out Innoventions, but one was just a line of video games and the other had pretty cool looking stuff, but it intimidated our kids, so we skipped it. We got just a slightly late start (about 15 mins after rope drop), but Test Track was already at a 60 minute wait, and stayed near 90 minutes for the rest of our day there. We finished all of that by 11:00 AM, and started on the World Showcase. Folks are not lying when they say you could spend a week at the parks and still not see it all. My kids are fairly big Phineas and Ferb fans, so we signed up for the World Showcase missions. Mexico took us 45 minutes! We said goodbye to the game right there, but the kids honestly could have spent the entire rest of the day just playing that game. The World Showcase was impressive, and Mexico was the right place for this Donald Duck fan to start. After a Three Caballeros ride that was way more fun than it should have been, I got to spend time with the big Duck himself.
Now would probably be a good time to talk about the Characters Meets. I was very impressed with the level of attention and enthusiasm from every single one that we met. Perhaps a few examples. My daughter met Daisy Duck at Magic Kingdom, and Daisy squatted down just a hair and gave my daughter the most personal hug I think I ever saw. It was far more special than just a hand on the shoulder. This day at Epcot I wore my Donald Duck shirt (The Original Angry Bird) and my Donald Duck watch. Needles to say, Chip and Dale lost their minds trying to wipe Donald off of my shirts, and then fighting with my son as they would try to cover Donald's picture and he would pull their hands down just as the camera flashed. Donald jumped up and down when he saw my watch and dragged me to the photographer to show it off. I think next trip I'm going to have a Donald Duck is #1 custom t-shirt made just to see what kind of antics it brings. Anyway, back to Epcot.
I won't take you through the entire World Showcase, but the whole things was impressive. I was surprised at how many small museums were there. They often looked great, but there just wasn't that many of them. I think Japan was the most impressive place to me, but I love Japanese culture, so I am a bit biased. We ate lunch at the Liberty Inn, and I was fairly surprised at how good the food was. At China our World Showcase tour transformed into a hunt for the best pictures and princesses. My daughter wanted to meet Mulan, but was terrified. After Mulan got close to her and told her stories about Mushu (his favorite ride is Its a Small World, but he still gets nervous on it) she came out of her shell. We tried to take a picture with Belle, but had to move on because the line was too long. We got some good pictures and Me and the kids went to meet Pooh and Tigger at Christopher Robin's room. Probably the coolest thing possible happened while we were waiting. Every Disney Character I saw basically had an armed escort to and from their photo spots. Mary Poppins came out, and she was by herself. I'm not sure what she was doing, but as a group came up to her she just started taking selfies and camera photos with everyone around. My wife did not want to see Pooh, but Mary is one of her absolute favorites and she was so excited about taking a picture with her on the spot. To me, that cast member's decision was pure Disney magic. We went back to Belle, and huge rain clouds came in. We were racing the rain, and for once we won! Belle was so sweet with my daughter, and it was one of her favorite stops on the entire trip. After Belle, the rain came in and we called it a day.
Our next day was at Magic Kingdom again, and I truly fell in love with the whole experience. We started off with a second round of Winnie the Pooh (!!!!!!) and then tried to tackle the parts of the park we didn't get to see. We met Ariel, who was impressively knowledgeable about her rooms at Art of Animation. We then wrote the Little Mermaid ride, which was great. My children DEMANDED another ride on Splash Mountain, so we went there next, but we took the long way around through new Fantasyland. We had a blast at Gaston's Tavern ( it feels GREAT to sit is his chair) and La Fue's Brew is great! We had reservations at Be Our Guest and it completely lives up to the hype. The best French Onion soup I've ever had, and such an impressive atmosphere. We hit up other great attractions like It's a Small World and Mickey's Philharmagic. Then our fast passes came in and we met Anna, Elsa, Cinderella, and Rapunzel. Our last pass was on the Seven Dwarfs' Minecart. I could barely fit in the seat, but the ride was a blast. My wife was exhausted at this point, so we strolled slowly back through Main Street and headed back .This was our last night at the Hotel, and I decided that after I left the pool I walked the grounds and looked at everything.
We decided that since we missed one day in the parks we would hit up another park before we headed home. After a lot of debate we settled on Magic Kingdom. We didn't do much. We ate sundaes, rode the Jungle Cruise, and went back to the Laugh Floor. We endured the horror that is Stitch's Great Escape. The smell wasn't that bad, but the dark effects were just not fun.
Now we are back, and my wife is starting to kick this junk, and I cannot keep from thinking about our next trip. I'm thinking maybe end of March and Caribbean Beach next time... so many possibilities.
Our Vacation was from May 29th.- June 5th. I dived in and did as much planning as I could before leaving. I reserved our rooms and tickets online before we left. I had our fast passes lined up along with some ADRs prior to leaving. Since I have become disabled in my right leg, I spent a lot of time debating whether or not to rent wheel chairs, motor scooters, etc. I would up buying seated walker before leaving for our trip, and it was a Godsend. I had speculative plans lined up for the trip, and we were ready. We decided that an 11 hour drive would be cheaper all around than a flight, so we left at 2:00 AM CST on the 29th, headed for Orlando. The one thing that we really hadn't planned for though was my wife coming down with something horrible that she is just now, about a month later, starting to kick.
I have nothing but great things to say about Art of Animation. I have been able to spend time in a wide variety of very nice hotels in my life, and Art of Animation took my breath away. I understand that people always look for something different, but the Larger than Life themeing was just fantastic. There is nothing like standing next to a 4 floor tall statue of Ursula. We stayed in the Little Mermaid section in the Ursula building, and the absolutely only complaint about the location is the walk to the main building. However, because we went through the Lion King section to get to the food court, we found ourselves in generally a good mood at meals, usually singing Hakuna Matata. The food court lives up to its reputation. All of the food was great, although the Tandori dishes just weren't for me. Also, we did notice one of the only consistent knocks against the Magic Kingdom. The chocolate everywhere just tastes off. I got used to it by the end of the trip, but it was extremely "waxy" tasting.
The pools were great. My children LOVED the fact that all three pools topped off at 4'11'' so they never had to worry about their shaky swimming. We actually preferred the Cars pool to Big Blue though. I got the impression that Big Blue would have some voices and Nemo themed music underwater. It is quite a trip to swim underwater to Mack the Knife though. Over all the Cars pool was almost always the least crowded, and my kids made sure we swam EVERY day.
Because my wife was so sick, we had a hard time getting early starts, so we wound up driving everywhere. I really can't comment on the quality of Disney's transportation.
Downtown Disney was sort of a waste of time for me. The Lego store was incredible with its amazing statues outside, and World of Disney was interesting, but my kids weren't into it, my wife was a bit miserable, and the crowds were too much for me. I wasn't sure about going there late afternoon on a Friday, so next time we will try it during the week, and hopefully my wife won't be have dead with walking flu.
Our day at Hollywood Studios was incredibly strained. It was Saturday on Star Wars weekend, so we expected the crowds. We got there just a few minutes after Rope Drop. We found out quickly that Rock-in Roller coaster was down for the day. We got in line early for the Tower of Terror. After getting to the door, that ride was closed too. We decided to give the Great Movie Ride a try, and it was pretty fun, although of course my son freaked out at the Alien... Tower of Terror reopened and we caught that quickly enough. As an old Twilight Zone fanatic I loved the ride, panicking kids and all. We ate at the Pizza Planet, which was surprisingly very good. We then got Midway Mania and Disney's Museum, which I found completely fascinating. Star Tours was also so much fun. I wanted to do so much more, but the rain was relentless. During the few breaks in the weather, the Star Wars touches were great. The Storm Troopers and their banter was by far the best Star Wars stuff. I felt so bad for people who came for autographs though, because the rain kept shutting the sessions down. Overall, we had fun, but the day was kind of a let down.
Magic Kingdom though, wow. Even my best expectations did not prepare me for just what we were in for. We got there a little late, 9:30ish, and my kids had to potty, then they wanted to ride the carousel, so my day's plans were thrown off. But, there was so much, so we kept at it. Our first experience was Pirates, and man, that was a great way to go. We then hit Splash and Space Mountain. We grabbed lunch at Columbia Harbor House, which was fantastic. We got the Haunted Mansion and then hit Space Mountain. The People Mover was a great break from the heat. We then went to the Laugh Floor and Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. The Laugh Floor was way funnier than I thought it would be. Space Ranger spin shut down 6 times on us during our ride. It just wasn't worth the wait. We started wrapping our day up with Pete's Side Show meet and greats. That was when Disney really hit me. I left with tears in my eyes and a smile on my face, explaining the concept of a side show to my children. We decided on the way out to go ahead and ride Pooh and the Teacups. Winnie the Pooh's ride is probably my favorite ride of the entire trip. I really could forget about the entire world, and I remembered a lot of happy memories from my childhood. The Teacups were a really solid end piece to a fantastic day.
The next day wound up being an off day because my wife just couldn't bring herself to go out.
After a day of rest she started to perk up a bit and we hit Epcot. Living with the Land was fantastic for us seeing the produce that they were growing. We then hit Soarin', and it completely lived up to the hype. My wife said it was her best ride of the entire trip. It was superb and the kind of experience I would recommend to everyone. We tried Nemo's ride and the Aquarium, with the Aquarium being better. Turtle Time with Crush was great. Spaceship Earth was impressive for us all. We did the meet and greet with Mickey and Pals, and then there was Journey into the Imagination with Figment. This was our surprise ride of the trip. It was funny and a load of fun, except for that one smell... A lot of people harp on this one, but it was way better than expected. It started raining again, and the kids got pool hungry, so we stopped at Club Cool for a few minutes and then called Epcot a day.
Our next day we went back to Epcot to give the World Showcase a walk through. We wound up using our fast pass + to the best advantage that day. We FINALLY remembered our autograph book, so we got Mickey and Friends along with Chip and Dale, plus another go on Figment and Spaceship Earth before 11:00 AM. We also did Mission Space. We did the mild version of the ride, but it still was a blast. We checked out Innoventions, but one was just a line of video games and the other had pretty cool looking stuff, but it intimidated our kids, so we skipped it. We got just a slightly late start (about 15 mins after rope drop), but Test Track was already at a 60 minute wait, and stayed near 90 minutes for the rest of our day there. We finished all of that by 11:00 AM, and started on the World Showcase. Folks are not lying when they say you could spend a week at the parks and still not see it all. My kids are fairly big Phineas and Ferb fans, so we signed up for the World Showcase missions. Mexico took us 45 minutes! We said goodbye to the game right there, but the kids honestly could have spent the entire rest of the day just playing that game. The World Showcase was impressive, and Mexico was the right place for this Donald Duck fan to start. After a Three Caballeros ride that was way more fun than it should have been, I got to spend time with the big Duck himself.
Now would probably be a good time to talk about the Characters Meets. I was very impressed with the level of attention and enthusiasm from every single one that we met. Perhaps a few examples. My daughter met Daisy Duck at Magic Kingdom, and Daisy squatted down just a hair and gave my daughter the most personal hug I think I ever saw. It was far more special than just a hand on the shoulder. This day at Epcot I wore my Donald Duck shirt (The Original Angry Bird) and my Donald Duck watch. Needles to say, Chip and Dale lost their minds trying to wipe Donald off of my shirts, and then fighting with my son as they would try to cover Donald's picture and he would pull their hands down just as the camera flashed. Donald jumped up and down when he saw my watch and dragged me to the photographer to show it off. I think next trip I'm going to have a Donald Duck is #1 custom t-shirt made just to see what kind of antics it brings. Anyway, back to Epcot.
I won't take you through the entire World Showcase, but the whole things was impressive. I was surprised at how many small museums were there. They often looked great, but there just wasn't that many of them. I think Japan was the most impressive place to me, but I love Japanese culture, so I am a bit biased. We ate lunch at the Liberty Inn, and I was fairly surprised at how good the food was. At China our World Showcase tour transformed into a hunt for the best pictures and princesses. My daughter wanted to meet Mulan, but was terrified. After Mulan got close to her and told her stories about Mushu (his favorite ride is Its a Small World, but he still gets nervous on it) she came out of her shell. We tried to take a picture with Belle, but had to move on because the line was too long. We got some good pictures and Me and the kids went to meet Pooh and Tigger at Christopher Robin's room. Probably the coolest thing possible happened while we were waiting. Every Disney Character I saw basically had an armed escort to and from their photo spots. Mary Poppins came out, and she was by herself. I'm not sure what she was doing, but as a group came up to her she just started taking selfies and camera photos with everyone around. My wife did not want to see Pooh, but Mary is one of her absolute favorites and she was so excited about taking a picture with her on the spot. To me, that cast member's decision was pure Disney magic. We went back to Belle, and huge rain clouds came in. We were racing the rain, and for once we won! Belle was so sweet with my daughter, and it was one of her favorite stops on the entire trip. After Belle, the rain came in and we called it a day.
Our next day was at Magic Kingdom again, and I truly fell in love with the whole experience. We started off with a second round of Winnie the Pooh (!!!!!!) and then tried to tackle the parts of the park we didn't get to see. We met Ariel, who was impressively knowledgeable about her rooms at Art of Animation. We then wrote the Little Mermaid ride, which was great. My children DEMANDED another ride on Splash Mountain, so we went there next, but we took the long way around through new Fantasyland. We had a blast at Gaston's Tavern ( it feels GREAT to sit is his chair) and La Fue's Brew is great! We had reservations at Be Our Guest and it completely lives up to the hype. The best French Onion soup I've ever had, and such an impressive atmosphere. We hit up other great attractions like It's a Small World and Mickey's Philharmagic. Then our fast passes came in and we met Anna, Elsa, Cinderella, and Rapunzel. Our last pass was on the Seven Dwarfs' Minecart. I could barely fit in the seat, but the ride was a blast. My wife was exhausted at this point, so we strolled slowly back through Main Street and headed back .This was our last night at the Hotel, and I decided that after I left the pool I walked the grounds and looked at everything.
We decided that since we missed one day in the parks we would hit up another park before we headed home. After a lot of debate we settled on Magic Kingdom. We didn't do much. We ate sundaes, rode the Jungle Cruise, and went back to the Laugh Floor. We endured the horror that is Stitch's Great Escape. The smell wasn't that bad, but the dark effects were just not fun.
Now we are back, and my wife is starting to kick this junk, and I cannot keep from thinking about our next trip. I'm thinking maybe end of March and Caribbean Beach next time... so many possibilities.
