Hi everyone ... we're back ; ;D This trip was a bit of a mixed bag.... great weather ... horrible crowds ... some fun times ... some ill times... My DH works out of the country on business as a Project Manager. Last summer, I got him to commit to a week in 2008 to go to WDW. It had to work around his schedule - no movement there. (Of course, projects go over-schedule. It ended up being a really bad week for him... we probably won't see him for the next month. But I digress.) So, he picks the week of April 19th. In previous years, we've gone in Sept and Nov and had very relaxing, walk-right-onto-rides vacation. We've never been in a "regular" season. Thinking that Easter is early this year, I go ahead and book it. IT WAS BUSY! Apparently most of the North-East US including New York, New Jersey, Conneticut, etc. had spring break last week On top of that, Magic Kingdom was closed early 3 of the nights we were there for Grad Nights, and closed another night for a Pirate/Princess party. ALSO, there was a cheerleading/tumbling competition happening over at DHS. AND, Southern Middle School Bands were invited to play around the world. Let's put this in perspective ... It's a Small World had an 80-minute wait at eleven in the morning! Crowds were pretty much gone yesterday, so it should be quiet for this upcoming week. It certainly makes me re-think whether I bother going down next May when the DH has a conference. The weather was gorgeous. It was 86 degrees everyday with absolutely NO humidity! Who knew?! My eldest DD was in heaven that Fantasmic would not be cancelled due to "inclement" weather like in every other trip. (She had never seen it.) Oh ... and about that note on illness... I seemed to have come down with some sort of throat infection last Wednesday. ; I still have it so I'm thinking Strep but I'll wait it out. Of course, Mommies are Mommies, so I kept on chugging through it for the girls. Not the ideal trip I expected though. Onto the parks: Animal Kingdom: I was brave this trip, and experienced new rides that pushed my limits. We rode Expedition Everest first up. Now my previous posts mentioned that I'm no lover of roller coasters ... Space Mountain yes ... but nothing with drops. I loved this ride. It was so smooth. Funny thing though, my thrill-loving daughters HATED it! ; ??? Apparently, you throw in a monster concept and they go ballistic. My little one loves AK for the water ride, and they discovered another love this trip ... Primeaval Whirl (I did not go on this). Apparently my just turned 6-year-old reaches the 48-inch mark at Disney Parks. Must be the magic ; Primeaval Whirl they love ... EE not so much. Nothing much else to say on AK except that we were able to get immediate walk-ins for Yak & Yeti. Everywhere else this trip, Disney restaurants were turning away walk-ups. EPCOT: My DDs are Test Track fanatics so we had to ride that half a dozen times. Yeah for Fastpasses. The girls loved the new Spaceship Earth ... especially the photo bobble heads you see on the screen. Unfortunately, of the 4 (yes, 4 times ... over 2 days) we rode this, the photos only worked twice. The nemo ride was a bit of a letdown, compared to all the hype on the DL subs which we missed last year. The girls didn't ask to do it twice. Yesterday was our second day at EPCOT and it was much quieter. We were able to ramble around, and the girls got picked for one of the interactive shows at Innoventions. Just remembering a side note. We stayed at Bonnet Creek Resort, and we were able to see the Epcot fireworks AND the Magic Kingdom fireworks every night from our balcony ; ;D Magic Kingdom: MK is crowded during the best of times ... add that it was closed early on Wed, Fri, and Sat ... not so happy a place on the remaining days. My girls are 8 and 6 and flip flop between thrill seekers, and playhouse Disney. So, on our first Magic Kingdom day, we had to start out at Fantasyland and get all the kiddy stuff out of the way. This was a good thing, because we weren't able to go back there later on in the trip. We then went to Tomorrowland where the girls rode their favourite SPace Mountain ; ... the right track is more thrilling I think. We also did the Monsters Inc Laugh Factory which we had never seen. My DH got picked on the screen as "thinks everyone's looking at him." We continued onto all the remaining rides and parades and shows ... good thing my DDs are far-sighted because there was no getting close to those. ; ; Then my funny story .... you see I've always "planned" my previous trips (DL included) when Splash Mountain just so happened to be in refurbishement. I hate drops! My DH had also never ridden it before so he couldn't tell me what to expect. But, my girls so wanted to try it as a family. So, Mommy put on a brave face and said let's do it. I should also mention that I don't like boats. We waited 50-minutes at 7 at night. The ride started off and I instantly knew I'd made a mistake. I was getting super stressed. After the first little drop, my mind started sending killing vibes to my husband and truly wondering what would happen if I jumped out then and there. We started into the animatronic scene and all of a sudden, the sound went out ... but the robots were still moving. The boat kept going a little bit and then bumped into a bunch of other boats. After a little while, the lights came on and we were told we would have to be manually evactuated from the ride! I think I was the only person there laughing and happy. The CMs came and fished us out. We had to stand on the side of the ride for awhile while they got everyone, and then we marched in single file through the back way. We saw where they keep the floats for the parade. I even took some quick photos as proof to my ordeal. They gave us all a free fastpass for one ride at MK for the remainder of the month. Somehow we got 6 of them. The girls were so disapointed, but I was relieved. And, I can truly say that I rode Splash Mountain ...even for only 2 minutes! The next day at MK, my girls rode it twice with Daddy, but not me. I told them someone up there didn't want Mommy to ride it and I'm abiding by that ; ;D DHS: Last park, last great accomplishment. My DDs wanted to ride Rock'N'Roller Coaster so we went there first thing. Yes, the Kindergartner passed the height requirements once again. I've never done this one, but generally don't travel all that well ; I have to say, that I absolutely HATE the launch of that ride. The first time, I literally wanted to kill everyone. I say first ... because my kids got me on there 2 more times! I really didn't have a problem with the rest of the ride, but that launch makes me nauseas as I'm typing this. Oh, and we were "dreamed" on. We went to the Animation Building in the morning, and they gave us all dream fastpasses for DHS. Where were they for MK or EPCOT?! I truly appreciate the gift, but it was only useful for the above-mentioned ride. I will never do TOT again ... although my husband did get the elder DD to try it (the younger tried it last year). She hated it. Now every amw-girl can officially nix the TOT. The evening ended in Fantasmic which was Fantastic as usual. Of all the parks, this one was not that bad crowd-wise. My DH even got to volunteer to be in the Backstage Tour's water show -- he was the guy that gets to sit in the room and have all the water poured on him. (You see he'll never admit to liking Disney, but he's a closet mouser!) My only sad moment was my daughters deciding to skip the Playhouse Disney show for another go at the roller coaster :'( So that brings me to the end of another vacation. Got to love Pearson for making us wait over an hour for customs and baggage ... turning a 2 1/2 hour flight into an 8-hour ordeal ... priceless ; ;D
Glad you sort of had a good time. I was thrilled when I read you got on Splash Mountain. I thought finally someone my wife would trust to tell her how great the ride was but then my hopes were dashed. I'm still trying to convice her the one at Disneyland is a smaller drop. Thanks for sharing your trip report.
Nope ... not me ... I've never been a fan of any water flume ride ... something about feeling totally out of control on that drop. The only one I've managed to do is the one at Ontario Place ... and I hated my husband for that experience too ; I did do the TOT once in 1998, but never again. ;
I know most people here stay on property, but I put these photos online for another site and thought I'd add them here too. These are pics from Wyndham Bonnet Creek, which is located beside the CBR. We had a 2-bedroom condo there. This is the main clubhouse with pool complex, taken from my balcony: View across the lake, more condos being built: lazy river, my youngest DD is the timbit ; ;D: view of Epcot ball from our balcony (hard to see against the clear sky). I only have a cheap kodak with very little zoom.: view of fireworks from balcony:
