Lotta Love for WDW Trip Report - Days 1-5 Up, Added more pics About This Page:

[Shell_of_the_South]

I'm having a hard time readjusting to life with no Disney trip to plan, so maybe writing a trip report will get it out of my system!

This was our family's 4th trip to WDW, our 7th to Orlando. I've also been twice as a child with my parents. So I guess this is my 6th trip to WDW.

We found some new loves this trip: We loved Port Orleans Riverside. We also loved the dining plan and Alfredo's and Boatright's in particular. So I think this trip had a lotta love in it!

Dates: 9/29/05 - 10/5/05

Cast: Me (37) - loves everything Disney
DH (39) - loves Disney, doesn’t love motion rides
DS (15) - thrill ride junkie
DD (14) - loves to sleep in the room (typical teenager)
DD (11) - chip of the old block - loves everything Disney

Also met up with our friends who have 2 kids 10 and 6.

A little background - my family loves rides, they don’t do parades, they don’t do shows, they don’t do fireworks - you get the picture!

9/29 - DH calls me at work and says he would like to leave tonight instead of lunch tomorrow - woo hoo!! Only I have not packed. I picked up the kids at school that afternoon and told them the good news. Then we headed home and rushed to get ready.

9/30 - 1:30 a.m. we left the house and were on our way! Stopped around 7:00 a.m. at a Cracker Barrel for breakfast - my girls have on their pajama pants - but we don’t care - we’re on vacation!. Pulled into PO-R about 10:00. Hurrah!! Waited in line about 5 minutes to check in. Our room is ready! Alligator Bayou, Building 34, not the buildings I requested, but we take it as DH is pretty tired from the drive. We drive over to our room, and we’re very happy to see how close we are to the parking lot - don’t have to lug our junk so far!

Very impressed with our room - it is so cool and everyone loves it! After we unpack I am ready to explore, so DD and I take a walk around the resort to check everything out. I totally love the shady landscaping around Alligator Bayou, and the winding paths make an ordinary walk feel like an adventure! Found the fishing hole and Ole’ Man Island. Seems that the hot tubs are covered up with construction walls - not good! Halved a cookie at the food court - kinda hard.


Walkway near our room

That evening we all walked to the food court for supper - trying out the dining plan for the first time. Have to say we were impressed with the food and the dining plan! Hardly anyone in the dining area, pretty quiet. For dessert we all got homemade milkshakes - they will make you a milkshake out of any ice cream flavor they have. I got the Edy’s low fat sugar free ice cream, and it was still a very rich shake.

We walked back toward the room via the fishing hole so everyone could see the fish, but it closed at 3:00 p.m. I was showing everyone the Mansion rooms from the bridge when a lady said to us “That’s the French Quarter - it’s another resort.” Well I knew it wasn’t, but I didn’t say anything. DH said, “She obviously doesn’t know who she is talking too - the Disney nut!”

That night DH and I walked down to the French Quarter (the real one) and looked around there. While we got a kick out of the pool area and really liked the food court, we preferred our shady Alligator Bayou.

One day at Disney - over already! Lovin' it so far!

[Shell_of_the_South]

10/1/05 - MGM - we met up with some friends from home and arrived before the park opened and waited for the rope drop. We all had our picture taken by a Disney photographer, and I think he was the best we encountered our whole trip. He took a really cute one of the whole group (9 of us) all looking at an empty hat in surprise. When I checked our PhotoPass pictures, Stitch was jumping out of the hat!

Headed to Tower of Terror and rode 3 times with virtually no wait. Rock ‘n Roller Coaster is closed - why am I not surprised? It has been closed every time I’ve been to WDW the first thing in the morning. So we headed toward the big hat and saw Stitch and Mickey posing for photos. I talked my family into a picture with the big cheese himself.



The Great Movie Ride wait line seemed a bit long, so we opted to try the Muppets - my favorite 3D attraction. We walked straight into the pre-show and it was only a few minutes until the theater doors opened. After the Muppets it was 11:00 and I had planned on meeting Donna and Cindy at 11:00 in front of the big guitar. So our group split up - DH and I headed to RnRC while the rest visited Star Tours, which I think they rode twice with no wait.

As I walked under the archway to RnRC, I could see Donna (GoofyMom) waiting for me! I was just tickled to meet Cindy (luvnwdwgal) and Donna after chatting with them both for a few years! I was not tickled to see that RnRC was still down. The 3 of us and our hubbies chatted for a while until I noticed they were letting guests in the que line, so I called the rest of our group and told them to head our way. While DH will only ride this once, it’s my favorite and the kids and I rode it 3 times in a row. Wait times were fairly short, about 15 minutes.


GoofyMom, me, luvnwdwgal

We wanted to catch the new Motors stunt show, so we left that end of the park and walked towards the Chinese theater. The Great Movie Ride line was much shorter now, so we walked straight inside (air conditioning, how wonderful!). After about a 10 minute wait, which is the shortest I’ve ever encountered on this attraction, we were once again transported into our favorite movies.

Everyone was ready for a meal, so we decided to try the ABC Commissary. DH and I had the Cuban sandwich which was pretty good. We found a fairly quiet area near the corner of the dining area where we could relax and enjoy our food. I noticed Jack’s shirt and Charlie’s shoes from “Lost” were on display there.

After lunch, our friends’ DS wanted to see the Power Rangers, so we split up again. My DS wanted to do Millionaire, but we arrived just as the show started and couldn’t get in. I suggested we try The Magic of Disney Animation, which was greeted with sarcastic groans from the kids. This attraction had no wait, so we went right into the theater. I thought the film with Mushu was very entertaining. And surprising enough, the kids all enjoyed the offerings afterwards. We really had fun with the booths where you could record your voice in a Disney film, it was so funny! I wanted to do the Animation school, but we didn’t have time as the Motors show would be starting soon. Walking towards Motors we could see workers busily installing the Christmas lights for the Osborne lights!

We arrived about 10 minutes before the show. I took a lot of pictures and got a few that were ok, considering we were sitting in the very back of the stadium. The view of MGM from up there was great!




I think we had done pretty much everything we wanted at MGM, so we all headed to PO-R for a little break before our dinner at Epcot. After a little rest we drove to Epcot. We were hoping to catch Soarin’ before dinner, but stopped at Mission Space first. Wait - not at all! I sent DH to get Soarin’ fastpasses while we walked towards Italy for our supper. DH walked all the way over to the land only to find out there were no more fastpasses and a 60 min wait - don’t think so.

Thank goodness for cell phones - so much easier to coordinate our group when separated! The kids and I checked in at Alfredo’s. DH arrived about 10 minutes later and then our name was called. We were seated in the very back of the restaurant right next to the kitchen door, which turned out to be a good thing because we never wanted for a thing - our drinks were kept filled all night. I ordered a salad appetizer while DS ordered fried calamari and DH ordered fettuccine. The fried calamari was so good we ordered more! My meal was wonderful, I ordered the trio which was lasagna, fettuccine, and ziti. But the best was the desserts! The girls ordered cannoli (I think that’s the name?) while DH and I shared the dessert sampler. Without a doubt the cannoli was the best item on the dessert sampler, I wished I had ordered it by itself - sweetened ricotta cheese with choc. chips rolled up into this shell. But the tastiest thing at Alfredo’s was our waiter Patrick - he was such a cutie! I just loved to hear him talk!

After our wonderful and extremely filling supper we needed a walk! We thought about going to The American Adventure, but Kansas was performing right in front of America! So we watched it and caught about 4 songs, including Dust in the Wind and Carry On My Wayward Son. They were great, and my kids were thrilled! My DS is really into the music from my teenage years, so he really enjoyed it. The America Gardens Theater is really a great venue to see a live performance, you can really get up close and personal.



Our friends dined at the Beach Club, so we met them at the Int’l Gateway. We noticed droves and droves of folks making a beeline for the exit. As we walked through Future World we realized why. It started to pour and soon we were soaking wet. We found shelter under Spaceship Earth, but the A/C made us freezing! We sprinted to the ride entrance and found it to be surprisingly warm inside Spaceship Earth. We dried off enough to get wet again as we walked to our vehicle! So glad to get back to our room (which was freezing since DH turned the a/c down so low!) so we could put on dry clothes and hop into bed.

Day 2 at Disney - over too soon! I’m lovin’ it so far!

[jakenjess]

Great start! Looking forward to more!

[karmic]

I am enjoying your report!

[disneymom9092]

Great job Michelle! Can't wait for more!

[SharonK0527]

Great report so far Shell! I loved your comment about your "tasty" waiter Patrick!

Looking forward to more.....

[Shell_of_the_South]

Sunday - We had originally planned for this day to be a non-park day, but after watching the weather forecast which called for more and more rain as the week progressed, we decided to visit MK with our friends.

We arrived at the Kingdom about 10 minutes after the park opened and after the obligatory castle photos, headed towards Frontierland. This is our usual plan as most folks go to Tomorrowland/Fantasyland first. We were received by a virtually empty Frontierland.



I want to back up and say that every time we had our picture taken by a Disney photographer, I also asked them to take one with my digital camera. My pictures all turned out as good or in some cases even better than the Disney ones - highly recommend doing this yourself as it could save you a ton of money in souvenir photos! I printed an 8 x 10 of us for my in-laws when I got home and it turned out great!

We got Fastpasses for Big Thunder Mtn. and immediately got in line for Splash Mtn, actually we were the line because there was no line! We rode 3 times in a row - this is DH’s favorite WDW attraction.


Please don’t throw me in that briar patch!

After we were nicely spritzed, we dried off on Big Thunder Mtn - at least 3 times with very little wait times - I’m talking less than 5 minutes!


View from Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Next stop was the Haunted Mansion - we immediately walked into the stretching room. Lovin’ these minimal wait times!

When we got out of the HM, we walked towards Fantasyland and found the wait times - 30 to 60 minutes for Peter Pan and Pooh. My kids “pooh pooh” these rides anyway. So we continued towards Tomorrowland when we noticed Mickey’s Philharmagic was about to start. We walked inside just as a nice Florida shower was about to begin. I love this show, Donald is a sentimental favorite for me because my dad used to do Donald impersonations for me when I was little. Sometimes he still does them for me!

When we exited the show, the rain had just ended - lovin’ that perfect timing! We were ready for some thrill riding, so we walked to Space Mountain which had a 30 minute wait, got Fastpasses and waited in line. Just as we were about to board our cars, the ride shut down for a good 15-20 minutes. They turned on the lights, and I tried taking some shots of the tracks, but they didn’t turn out too well. Too far away for my flash to work. We got back in line to use our Fastpass and the stand-by line ended up being shorter! This is something we’ve learned to watch as it’s happened to us before. But we still got 3 rides out of Space Mtn. before we took a break for lunch. Not before getting another Fastpass for Buzz.

We ate lunch at Cosmic Ray’s. This has to be the loudest, crowded, and most nervewracking restaurant I’ve ever been in. The separate lines for burgers and chicken just added to the confusion as everyone had to get in different lines. I got a grilled chicken sandwich which was pretty dry and tasteless but everyone else loved their burgers and chicken strips. The sugar free brownie dessert was excellent though - great to know they have sugar free offerings! I would have preferred Pecos Bill’s but Cosmic Ray’s was more convenient at the time.

After redeeming our Buzz Lightyear Fastpass (my score 159,000!), we visited Stitch’s new home. I have never been in the original Alien Encounter, I can’t stand things near my neck or scary creatures running around me in the dark! But I agreed to try Stitch because I love him! This show was fairly cute, not something to stand in line for, thankfully we didn’t wait long. The rest of my family felt the attraction has been ruined, but they know no fear! I can see where Disney wanted to make it more family friendly.

Our next endeavor took us back across the park - our friends wanted to see the Hall of Presidents, they haven’t seen George Bush. Good for the kids, after all we did take them out of school! Learn something while you’re here I told them. I saw my 14 yr. old snoring....

There were basically 2 attractions left that we really wanted to see: Country Bear Jamboree and Pirates of the Caribbean. POTC was also an amazingly short line. The majority of the crowds were based in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. I think we waited about 5 minutes! We arrived at the Bears’ home just before the show started. Love the Pirates! Love that Big Al!


Dead Men Tell No Tales!

This was a MNSSHP day, so the park would be closing at 6:00. We had pretty much covered all the territory in MK we wanted, so we went back to hotel room for a quick swim before our supper at ‘Ohana. It was about 5:00, and it almost felt like we were being pushed out the door by CM’s directing folks out of the park!

We had a late ADR for 8:00. We arrived about 20 minutes early, but it was well after 8:00 before we were seated. I had reservations about this meal since hearing of the menu changes, but it was still very good. I did not like the sausage at all. And our service was terrible, I thirsted to death! The entertainment was different since our last visit, they also had hula dancing lessons for the kids.

At 9:00 they lowered the lights and we saw the wonderful fireworks show for MNSSHP. This was an added treat for us - they also piped the music from the show in the restaurant speakers. The show had some interesting effects on the castle which we could see very well. I would definitely recommend planning a meal at ‘Ohana during MNSSHP - we enjoyed it! And as much as I complained about the demise of the fresh pineapple after your meal, I really enjoyed the bread pudding and ice cream, although my waistline probably didn’t.

Loved our day at MK! And I was lovin’ those soft beds at PO-R. I slept more this trip than any trip I’ve ever taken.

[DawnDenise]

WOW...what a wonderful time you are having! The wait times you had were awesome. Looking forward to the next installment!

[debsta922]

Great report... My Ds(10) fell asleep in Hall of Presidents too...

[lauren-roxy]

Great report so far Michelle!! Sounds like you guys are having a blast!!! Can't wait to read more!!!

[Shell_of_the_South]

Monday - our last park day! We capped off a late night at ‘Ohana with an early ADR at Donald’s Breakfastsaurus - 8:10. I knew my sleepy teens wouldn’t be too happy with this, so I tried to explain how close we would be to Dinosaur when the park opened at 9:00.

After a sluggish start, we arrived at AK nearly at the time of our reservation, so we hiked it to DinoLand USA. I checked us in and we waited for about 10-15 before we were seated. The buffet looked very good, but moved very slowly, I’m not sure why. Most of us never got seconds because the characters started coming around and we didn’t want to miss them. However, they would only stop at our table for one picture and then move on before you could tell them we wanted more. There were 9 of us and we all paid and I felt we were entitled to get more than one camera pose. By the time Mickey visited us I didn’t give him much choice but to stop for a few shots! We also had so-so service here, I never got a refill on my drink. And we also waited too long for our check. I’m glad we took the opportunity to try this meal on the free dining plan, otherwise I might have been disapointed to pay for this character meal.

Donald and company behind us, we took the short walk to Dinosaur. I feel this is the scariest attraction in WDW, that big sucker at the end scares me to death! But it’s a funny scare, especially to see the photos at the end. I think we rode this twice with barely any wait times.

The kids followed Dinosaur up with quick rides on TriceraTop Spin and Primeval Whirl. I skip PW because it is just too jerky for me. TriceraTop Spin or “DinoDumbo” was a very short wait time compared to Dumbo in MK, so I would recommend it over Dumbo if that’s the kind of thing you like.

We had never seen Tarzan Rocks (remember my family hates shows), and since I’d heard it was closing in the near future I wanted us to see it. I think It’s Tough to be a Bug won out over my wishes, so we walked towards the Tree of Life, only to find out it was closed. And now we missed the Tarzan show, why don’t they listen to me?

We hung around a few minutes but it didn’t seem that the bugs would be showing any time soon, so we walked towards Africa to check the wait times for the safari. Ummm, 60 minutes is a long time to wait, so we passed. We’ve done the Maharajah Jungle Trek but never the Pangani Forest trail, so we chose that path. The first few exhibits we came to had no animals available to view - bummer. We barely saw one hippo under water. But the Gorilla viewing area was a big hit, we laughed and laughed at those crazy gorillas. Their actions are so human like! Here’s a great shot that make my kids cackle:


I didn’t plan on this shot, he turned his back on me!

We traveled back towards the big Tree - still no bugs appearing. Boy it is so hot at AK, wonder why it seems like the hottest park? After an ice cream break thanks to our dining plan, we caught the next show of Tarzan. I was wondering if Tarzan would ever show up, but he finally did. The in-line skaters were the most entertaining.



After the show I took a few shots of the under-construction Expedition Everest - can’t wait for it to open!



Third time’s a charm - as we approached the entrance to It’s Tough to Be a Bug it was just opening back up - we walked down the winding que path to the theater entrance and after about a 5-10 minute wait went inside. ITTBAB pretty much completed our AK “have-tos”, so we decided to return to our room for a nap - after all I did force a sleep-lovin’ teen out of bed early!

We took a little nap and had a snack - and then I was ready to go again! Our friends had went to Epcot and called to say there were muchos people there. So we decided to go back to MGM for a few hours until our dinner ressies at Epcot. I left my sleepy DD with her daddy and took the other 2 kids to MGM. Just as we reached the ticket gates, it started to rain, no I mean to pour!! We could either stand in a store or deal with it, so we dealt with it. Hollywood Blvd was a literal ghost town, I didn’t see a soul. So what if I was wet, I would dry quickly with a few rounds on RnRC! I love this ride, I love Aerosmith, I love Steven Tyler, I’ve just got a lotta love for RnRC!


“I’m lovin’ that idea, make it happen” - Steven is taking me with him to the show!

3 rounds of RnRC makes me a happy girl! But DS wants to do Millionaire and it’s almost time for the show to start. We left G-Force Records to visit Regis. This is still a fun show, I’ve heard rumors it might close. I surprised myself by getting on the board - #7!

DH called, it seemed my mummy daughter had awakened and they were heading to Epcot. So we also went en route. I stopped at Innoventions to check into the free photo for Disney Visa cardmembers, but that ended at 4:30 and it was past that time. Bummer. Once again all Fastpasses for Soarin were gone. We met up with our friends who had FP’s for both Soarin and TestTrack which weren’t open yet. So we visited Mars via Mission: Space - still no wait time! Either folks have lost interest in this attraction or it moves people through rather quickly.

Seeing that our dinner was soon approaching we split up our friends’ Fastpasses (nice to have friends isn’t it) - half went to Soarin while we went to Test Track. The wait time in the Fastpass line was 20 minutes! Still a good ride though - I love that speed!

We were really excited about our dinner at Le Cellier, we had heard so many good things. It was quite crowded. Not too bad a wait time for our table. However, it seems that the tables were really packed into a small place, hard to manuever through them. Those poor waitresses having to rush through that crowded dining room! I had the cheddar cheese soup which was good, my only complaint is that I wish there had been more! We had a cute little waitress, she was very friendly but it seemed to take a long time for our food to arrive. The steaks were very good, but not the best I’ve ever had. I’m glad we went (love that free dining), but I’m not sure we’d go back.

As we were having dessert we could hear Illuminations starting up. The girls and I walked up to the Lagoon where I got a few pics:



And that was our last park day - loved it though!

[dsnytina]

[ QUOTE ]
We ate a cute little waitress, she was very friendly but it seemed to take a long time for our food to arrive. I’m glad we went (love that free dining), but I’m not sure we’d go back.

[/ QUOTE ]

No wonder you didn't care for Le Cellier - you ate the waitress?!?
Was she a Montreal or a British Columbia?
Next time, stick with the steak. We have loved it every time we've eaten here.
Tell me this TR isn't over!!! I've loved it, and hope to hear more!
Tina

[Shell_of_the_South]

Ok, laugh it up, I typed in a hurry - better go change that! I imagine there will be quite a few more typos before it's over!

[dsnytina]

Michelle:
I know how that goes!
Thanks for taking the time to type this all up for us!
Tina

[DopeyGirl]

[ QUOTE ]
Ok, laugh it up, I typed in a hurry - better go change that! I imagine there will be quite a few more typos before it's over!

[/ QUOTE ]

That's OK Michelle . . . I said something the other night in the Library forum (talking about Saturday Night Live w/ "Napoleon Dynamite" as the host) that "I laughed my butt off at the monorail" but I meant "the monologue" . . . can you tell where MY brain was?

I'm lovin' your report too!!!