WDW Trip Repot Sept 10th-13th

[cardfrek]

WDW Trip Report - Day 1

So, now that I have sufficently recovered from my exodus to WDW now is the time for the telling of that not so sordid trip. Last wed the 6th my sister calls me and says that she and her friends will be going to Orlando, FL for buisness with her work, and that they will be able to get me plane tickets to come along. But then plans change and they will have all their time free to be at WDW. So I book the room for us at the All Star Movies Resort with a 50% cast member discount rate (SCORE!) we will be staying there from Sept 10th to the 13th. Unfortunetly i have to work 2 of those days at DCA, luckily they were group shifts so i had good chances of getting autorized days off.

Day 1: a.k.a Long travel day + Magic Kingdom

Short and simple, 5 am get up, 8 am plane leaves burbank 3 pm EST arrive at orlando international. 5 pm EST check in to the resort eat and lounge around for a bit. Decide to head to the Magic Kingdom since there are extra magic hours for that park for the night. After a bit of traveling finally get into MK just as the SpectroMagic parade starts and it happens to start raining at the same time. My sister was smart and brought the umbrellas with her (SCORE!) so we were able to stay dry (mostly). Parade was nice but we wanted to ride rides and dry off so we headed for tommorrowland.

First up Stitches Great Escape! wait was minimal got right into the pre-show. Sorta cute, sorta lame "I think i oiled myself!" OY! onto the actual ride. It was cute and sorta gross but i had been here once before when Extraterrorestrial alien encounter was there. Even though it was alot scarier i found it to be more thrilling. Up next Space Mountain, basically the matterhorn from disneyland enclosed (yawn) exploration dioramas at the end were funny to look at considering how dated they are now. I also lost my DS Lite at Space but i was able to recover it at the end of my trip. Disney lost and found rocks!

Next we headed west to fantasyland skipped most rides there, but decided to go on Small World. Meh, i prefer the Disneyland original much more. Exited Small World to liberty square and headed into Haunted Mansion. HM also felt real dated compared to Disneyland's version and we all came off the ride unimpressed. Next up Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Big Thunder was pretty fun. Then we went on Splash Mountain. The splash logs are alot nicer and wider than DL's and the anamatrionics and the effects inside the ride were cool too, The drop feels alot bigger on the DL version though.

Had a food break then we went on Pirates of the Caribbean. We were also underwhelemed by Pirates in MK as well, the DL original is sooo much better. We then got a dole whip and some ice cream and headed back to the resort and our room and crashed in bed for the night. Day 2 coming up next, in another post.

[cardfrek]

Re: WDW Trip Repot Sept 10th-13th

WDW Day 2 a.k.a Animals and Movies, but mostly animals (Part 1)

Monday sept 11th wake up bright and early and we catch the first bus we can to the Animal Kingdom park. First up getting fastpasses for Expedition Everest. The we head to africa and do the Kilimanjaro Safari. The safari ride was awesome! saw TONS of exotic animals, hippos (not jungle cruise fake hippos), giraffes, elephants, lions and so on. Finished the safari, got on the train to the conservation station (aka learn to be nice to the animals and mother nature or we will punch you in the neck). Still fun in a hippy preaching down to you sorta way. Hung out in the goat petting zoo for a while (BAAAAAAAAAAA!!) then went back to africa. We then went on the exploration trail next to the safari. Saw tons of fish and animals and saw the meerkats ("Look! it's Timon! awwwwwwwww") got done seeing the animals and then we went back to asia and rode the river ride Kali River Rapids. It was just up a lift hill around a few turns back down the flume and back to the station, we liked Grizzly River Run in DCA much more.

Next up Expedition Everest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fastpasses got us right on the ride, this is where it got freaky, on the lift hill our train suddenly stopped and we were there for quite a while, 4 or 5 min at least. While we were up there we had a AWESOME view overlooking orlando, we could see Tower at MGM, Space Mountain and the castle at MK, Spaceship Earth at Epcot, really cool stuff. Then after what seemed like an eternity, we finally got moving again. The rest of the ride was pretty fun too, (SPOILER ALERT!)reach a dead end, go backward for a bit, see the yeti tear up some tracks then go forward again and finally see the awesome yeti at the bottom of the mountain(END SPOILER).

We then headed to Dinoland and went on the souped up version of Mullholland Madness from DCA. It was all right with the spinning and stuff. Then we went onto Dinosaur. It has the same ride system as Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland, and the DL version is alot better too. Themeing was decent just not as much fun as Indy. We had pretty much seen all we wanted to at AK so we decided to head back to the resort and get some lunch then head over to the MGM studios.... but thats for part 2.

[cardfrek]

Re: WDW Trip Repot Sept 10th-13th

WDW Day 2 Part 2 a.k.a Movies and Aerosmith

After we were all nice and full from lunch we headed to Disney-MGM studios. Quick travel on the
disney bus system and inside the studios in no time. My sister and her friends decided it was a
great time to go inside every single store >.< on the way over to Tower of Terror after what
seemed like an hour we had finally got to the Tower area. Wait was minimal and got right on.
Tower at MGM is a whole different animal than the DCA version im used to riding/operating.
There seemed to be more emphasis on the "Twilight Zone" part of the story while in DCA it seems
to be more about the people on the elevator. The "5th Dimension" room is pretty cool though.

After we go done with Tower, we went on Rock N Rollercoaster. Got right on with minimal wait
too, nice premise using the limo to get to the Aerosmith rock concert. The ride launch system
is cool with the linear induction launch like California Screamin' has. TONS of twists and
loops in RnR.

We had then seen both of the really big rides at MGM and didn't really know what to do next, so
we decided on the studio tour. I thought the stuido tour would be up to the caliber of
Universal Studios Hollywood's backlot tour. Boy was i wrong. lame lame lame, only cool thing
was the "set" that exploded and rained down TONS of water. After that we wandered the streets
of america "backlot", meh.

I did a quick ride of Star Tours and it was pretty much an exact copy of the DL version except
with some changes in the placement of the queue. It was getting close to Fantasmic! show time
by then, so i ran ahead and saved us some seats in the F! ampitheater. Fantasmic! at MGM was
ok, opening was alright, extended bubble sequence was lame, missed the Columbia sailing ship
from DL and instead there was pocohantas and john smith, wayyy too many villians, and the
Dragon at the end was alot better in DL too, no mark twain wheelboat either .

After F! my sister and her friends decided to leave and i decided to hang around since it was
extra magic hours for MGM that day, i rode ToT a few more times and I met mike (YOU ROCK DUDE!)
after my 5th ride that day i bought my pic from the top of the tower and go something to eat
before the park closed and then headed back to the resort. Next up Day 3 - Epcot.

[GrimmGreen]

Re: WDW Trip Repot Sept 10th-13th

how was the weather dude?

and PICS please.. ha ha..

looking forward to epcot

[cardfrek]

Re: WDW Trip Repot Sept 10th-13th

weather was hot and humid, more humid than hot, 60 to 70% humidity usually

[cardfrek]

Re: WDW Trip Repot Sept 10th-13th

WDW Day 3 - Epcot


Day 3 Epcot

So we get up grab some breakfast from the hotel and head to Epcot, we have a bit of a leisurely pace for this day cause its our last day at the parks and this is the last park we havent fully explored yet. So we get inside the park and Spaceship Earth was right infront of us with no line so we hopped on. None of us had ridden it before and it was intresting showing the histroy of communication inside a giant golf ball.

Next up Test Track! TT before the speed test was ok, but the speed test with all the fun turns and banks was the best, too bad it didnt last longer. After TT we decided it would be best for everyone if we did some solo stuff for a while.

So i headed off to Mission: Space, decided to start off with the more intense training (orange) that was AWESOME! i loved the spinning, it really put some heavy G forces on you, after i did orange i went and did the less intense (green) just to see what the differences were between them. Green felt alot like Star Tours. It was alright, but i prefer the more intense version.

After space i went across to the Land pavillion. Only ride here i was intrested in was Soarin' mainly just to see the differences between the cali and Fl versions. The differences are mainly cosmetic, different cast member costume and instead of ramping down to the fastpass/standby merge point Epcot's ramps up. And the pre-show video monitors are flat screens. Other than that the rides are exactly the same. As for the ride itself its just as good as it in cali, in my opinion.

Went into the "The Living Seas" pavillion or as its going to be called soon "Nemo-land with some other fish and junk" :P wasn't intrested in turtle talk, have it in cali so i can see the show anytime, popped my head into the rest of the exhibits nothing really stood out. Left from the upper deck just as they were beginning the late day fish feeding. Saw a Diver swarmed with fish lol.

Went into the Imagination! pavillion and rode the Figment ride with Eric Idle on all the moniters and stuff. It was ok, i've heard the older versions of this ride were alot more fun. This is version 3.0 or something like that. Skipped Honey, i shrunk the audience, like crush I can see it in cali anytime i want.

By then i was tired of Future World so i went to the world showcase, i decided to go counter-clockwise starting from Canada, i would spend about 10-15 min in each county mostly just looking in shops really quick then moving on, wasn't really intrested in watching 20 yr old 20 min long movies. Saw my sister and her friends in colonial america.

Then i was on my own again, still going around to all the countries. Got to norway and rode Maelstrom, aka watch out for those trolls. then went to mexico next door and rode the small world type ride there, only instead of anamatrionic dolls there was 20-25 yr old video on loops projected on loops, "oh look! cliff divers! flea market with the same person trying to get you to buy stuff thats video that carries on for 3 screens! lol"

After that i went back to future world and checked out Innoventions. It was alright, but alot better than the disneyland version except for the part where you talk to stitch in disneyland, that part is cool. After that saw the Ellen DeGeneres movie/ride/thing about energy, i learned that lotsa dead dinos equal gas for cars. But i knew that already, oh well Bill Nye was there too!

I did Space orange one more time saw my sister and her friends again then i wanted to go see the Wishes fireworks at MK so i left em there at Epcot and headed to MK, got some dinner then got a prime spot for the fireworks in front of the castle. Wishes was ok, there seems to be alot more fireworks in the air than during Remember.... at Disneyland, and its a lil shorter too, in the end I like Remember.... alot more.

After the fireworks they went to Downtown Disney so i hopped on resort transit and went to Downtown Disney too. Downtown Disney at WDW is HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE! Walked all the way to Disney Quest then hopped a bus back to the resort. Watched TV for a bit then went to sleep.

Day 4 - Checkout and travel home.

Pretty simple like the beginning: woke up, got dressed, checked out, got on the magical express shuttle to the airport, got the flight tickets, hung around the airport for a bit, got the flight home, arrived back at burbank. We were back on the my luggage case got chewed up and was missing its back >.< , luckily nothing was missing. gonna get a replacment bag from the carrier. Got back to the car, paid the parking lot fee then dealt with lovely los angeles traffic :P and i was back home again YAY!

[figment1986]

Re: WDW Trip Repot Sept 10th-13th

Nice trip report, so you saw wishes rather then illuminations: reflections of earth...

Oh well..

Glad you had fun....

Back to work.

[Disney Magic]

Re: WDW Trip Repot Sept 10th-13th

Nice report thanks for posting. Any pics?

[BackIntoYourSystem]

Re: WDW Trip Repot Sept 10th-13th

Wonderful report! Thanks for sharing. Please post pics if you have any.

[TheBacklot]

Re: WDW Trip Repot Sept 10th-13th

Thanks for the info on Mission: Space, sounds like a blast (pardon the pun)!

[karamie]

Re: WDW Trip Repot Sept 10th-13th

There usually is a paddleboat. Not the Mark Twain ...

I guess it's under refurb.

[NikkiDancer]

Re: WDW Trip Repot Sept 10th-13th

Nice Report!!
What hotel did you stay at??

[Jerren]

Re: WDW Trip Repot Sept 10th-13th

Nice report, But one question when did they set up a green and orange Mission Space queue? Its been almost 2 years since I rode it last but I don't rememeber different verisons... I assume orange = origional green = toned down due to deaths and motion sickness complaints?

[cardfrek]

Re: WDW Trip Repot Sept 10th-13th

We stayed at the All Star Movies value resort hotel on property, and i read they started doing the green and orange for mission: space around memorial day 2005.