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Trip Report: Oct 9-16th, Old Key West: Pics too

Day 1, Saturday
Wake up early to catch an 8:30am Southwest flight. Being in Group C, we luck out and get the last row that will sit 4 next to each other. Arrive in Orlando and meet Mom, as she will be joining us for 4 days. Grab a bite at McDonald's in the airport. Go to Alamo to pick up the minivan. The man behind the counter first tries to get me to upgrade to the day's great deal on an SUV, which will cost me about $80 more for the week. And although I say "no", since my minivan is plenty big, he tries 3 more times. Simply unbelievable. Then, he asks "would you like the minimum insurance or maximum insurance". Knowing this scam, I say "NO insurance". He then says "so you don't want the maximum insurance?" Again, I say "I don't want ANY insurance". Then he goes on to try and sell me 'idle time, or dead time' insurance, which is only $9. He proceeds to explain about types of accidents that usually aren't covered, etc. Ee-gads dude, just give me my **** minivan!!! Thank God I never use Alamo for business trips, but it was worth the price I got on the minivan (it ended up being $264 total plus $25 in gas I bought for the week + 2 hours).

Anyway, we head over and check-in at Old Key West. Room 4632 is available at 1pm so we take it. It's a 2-bedroom, which I had gotten by exchanging my 1 bedroom Marriott timeshare thru IntervalWorld. Wow! This room is HUGE! I'll spare the details on the room as you can read those elsewhere, etc. The room is on the 3rd floor and overlooks the "corner" of the canal. Simply awesome.

We take the shuttle over to Epcot to do Mission: Space. We're there by 3pm by the way. (As an fyi, the purpose of doing the first 4 days of the trip the way we did was cause Mom wanted to try Universal for 2 days, and I wanted her to do the "new" and "must-dos" at Disney.) Mission Space is simply awesome so in less than 10 minutes, we're on it a 2nd time. This was not good for me, as twice in a row made me feel a bit ill. ;o) So, we were off to MK via the monorail as we wanted to see the parade and fireworks on the first night. Before heading into the park, we found our 1994 brick and took the traditional pictures. We do Buzz Lightyear (My wife beats everyone, including me, and I knew the secrets. Something is not right with the universe.), Space Mountain, Tomorrowland thingy, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Tiki, and Mickey's Philharmagic. Let me say that Philharmagic was simply awesome! We actually did this right before the 10pm fireworks (during end of first Spectra parade) and walked right in, with no waiting. Oh, we had grabbed a bite to eat at Casey's earlier. Because we were busy getting in as many rides as possible before the fireworks, we are basically stuck with a so-so view (by restuarant between tomorrow land and Main St). So-so meaning all the fireworks were basically to the right of the castle and I had no place to sit my tri-pod. Wishes was still amazing however! We then watch the 11pm Spectra parade, which is good, but I prefer the Electrical Light Parade. We happily go to sleep after a very, very long day!

Day 2, Sunday
We go to Universal Studios this day, so I'll keep it short here. The Mummy, the very first time, is simply incredible! You never know what is coming next and is a must-do for sure. Shrek 4D is very good, but not up to Philharmagic. Jimmy Neutron and Terminator 3-D are also very good. We get out of the park around 5pm and go shopping for food and alcohol. ;o) After eating a taco dinner at the room, we head over to Winter-Summerland for miniature golfing. Somehow, my DD beats everyone, including me. Something is not right with the universe. We also take lots of pictures here to possibly use for xmas cards, hee.

Day 3, Monday
We go to Universal Islands of Adventure, and it rains all day, sometimes pouring. This is somewhat good as we basically walk on every single ride. Spiderman is another awesome ride to say the least. The Hulk was also good, even in the rain. We have a ton of laughs on Bluto's Barge(?) as we get totally drenched. By 1:30pm, we are basically done the park and our bones are chilled from being wet all day. We go back to the resort and 4 of us cram in the jacuzzi to thaw out. Since its last night Mom is around, we do dinner at Bahama Breeze to celebrate DD's bday, who turns 13 on Tuesday. Story about dinner> wife wasn't too happy with the menu and was jokingly "bitching" about wanting a baked potato, even to the waitress. Believe it or not, this waitress suprises my wife with one at dinner. Here, she went across the street to Golden Coral, I think, and asked them for a backed potato. I've never, ever, seen such service, including my 100s of dinners on business.

Day 4, Tuesday
Do the Early entry (really 8:30am for us) for MGM. Get the birthday pin for 13 yr old DD (she just gets lots of birthday greetings throughout the day, no special treatment, etc). Go right to Rockin' Roller Coaster (its raining again) and wait about 30 minutes or so, as didn't want to waste time for the FastPass (since nothing we go on is close-by for that hour+ wait). Mom and 9 yr old son head over to Star Tours in the meantime. We then all meet at Muppets 3D. Still love that ole show. Then do Millionaire, which was alot of fun, and the Movie Ride, before escaping the park and heading over to Animal Kingdom. We grab FastPasses for Dinosaur and eat at the McDonalds..again. Just love that Dinosaur ride!! Do Primeval Whirl, which kids do several times, and Dino once more. At around 3:30pm we hit Bugs 3D(never sit in first 5 rows here!) and head out with Mom back to OKW since we did all we really wanted at AK. Mom catches a Mears shuttle as I'm searching Downtown Disney for those candied apples for her husband. Unfortunately, I never make it back in time to say good-bye, except via phone. :o( We enter resort room and find a signed Donald & Mickey bday card, with balloons, for my DD. We then shower, which seemed to be a 3-a-day event due to the mugginess, and head over to Planet Hollywood to celebrate DD birthday. We then decide to head over to Epcot and see Illuminations, which we've never seen before. Although we didn't have a great seat, it was pretty good at the Canadian steps. I didn't like the fact that there was basically nothing but smoke the first 5 minutes, or so it seemed. Anyway, it was good to see once but I don't think it compares to Wishes or Fantasmic.

Day 5, Wednesday
Do the Early entry (again, 8:30am, ha) for Epcot. Get the FastPass for TestTrack and head over to Mission: Space for one last ride, atleast for me. Line is very quick and kids do again. Do TestTrack but then comeback to do the other activities at Mission: Space. The video postcards are always funny to receive so send one to someone if you get a chance! Unfortunately, Body Wars and Cranium Command are closed ( I can't believe how much 'stuff' was closed at Disney in general, not liking that). We do Ellen's Energy and then head over to Honey...3D, Imagination, The Land. On the way out, we find cousin's Leave-a-Legacy(s) and take pics. We then head over to MGM as we have 4:10 reservations for the Hollywood & Vine Fantasmic Package. Let me say this. My family always seems to be skeptical of my choosing of dinner areas, (the whole Bahama Breeze thing to boot, ha), but they all loved this buffet. Before and after dinner, we had done Millionaire, Mermaid, Man and His Dreams. DW and DD did Rock-n-Roller Coaster one more time while I'll took DS to the backlot tour. (by the way, they are really building back in that area..some new car stunt show and some new city scapes). We get to the special Fantasmic entrance around 7pm and end up sitting in the 2nd-from-the-end section. What a show!!! That's all I can say. So glad we made sure to do this. Last time, we didn't know about the crowds and had gotten shut out, so to speak. Another busy day is history.

Day 6, Thursday
Since we decide to end our vacation by seeing Wishes again Friday night, we do Universal (3rd day free) and DisneyQuest this day. We go all the way over to Studios and do Mummy (kids twice since no lines). Then go back to Islands and hit our fav rides there. Back to OKW for some leftover tacos, and then to DisneyQuest by 3:30pm. The place is empty, which is AWESOME! Wait about 10 minutes total to do Pirates twice. Do Alien twice with zero waiting. Do Astroblaster 3 or 4 times in a row. Do all the other fun things as time just whizzes by. Kids end up loving Coaster Simulation and do that off & on about 7 times. My DD beats me in Daytona racing. Something is definitely wrong with the universe. We thought this would be an early night, but find out its tough to leave at 10pm! Jacuzzi time again!

Day 7, Friday
Take our time waking up and get over to MK just before 11am. Of course, as we get off the shuttle, it starts to rain, and then monsoon(it later clears up and is a perfect 'cool' day). The park is absolutely mobbed! We get FastPass for Buzz (once again, I lose as I tell everyone the secrets and my wife hits one for 100,000...something is wrong with the universe.) and do Carousel of Progress while waiting. Grab FastPass for SpaceMountain, and do Astro Orbiter while waiting (ever try fitting 2 adults in one of those? its quite hilarious trying to get in and out of if you do.. besides crushing my legs, my wife elbowed me in the mouth, ha). We end up doing Haunted Mansion again (do this while parade is going on), Jungle Cruise (long wait while waiting for FastPass for SplashMountain), Thunder Mountain, Hall of Prez, and Philharmagic again (sat in 4th row and it was a different experience and very good..much better than Bugs 3D was in the front). Before eating, we then had to go over to the Transportation Center to find our 2nd brick from 2000. The monorail wait was awful. We then had back to Casey's around 7:15pm and grab dinner. We get a table inside at first, but then end up with one right on the rail, which we end up staying the rest of the night. Great view of the castle and some pretty good pics of Wishes. Would love to be on the Train Station for Wishes but I can't sit there for more than 2 hours just to get a decent spot. Wishes is awesome once again, as its a fitting end to the parks.

Day 8, Saturday
Flight is at 4:40 so we take our time getting ready in the morning. Head over and do the Summerland portion of miniature golf ( I need to redeem myself of course). After falling quickly the first 5 holes, with some bizarro world rolls, I end up winning and all is right with the universe once again. We then grab a bite over at that big McDonald's (I need to buy stock in McDonald's!) before heading to DownTown Disney for some quick shopping. Once again on the plane, we get the last row that will sit 4 next to each other!
Alas, our trip is over..in a blink of an eye.

Summary
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Had an awesome time as usual. The must-see 'new' rides were Mission: Space, Philharmagic, Mummy and Spiderman. The crowds were nuts at times, especially MK. What is it with you people who bring infants and toddlers (less than 3 yrs old) ?? Do you enjoy driving those double-wide strollers thru hordes of people? Whoever decided to rent strollers at Disney should be fired on the spot. Half of the people wouldn't bother if they couldn't rent them, thus increasing some space to move around in that park. OKW was just awesome, to say the least. Oh, saw a gator in one of the ponds going to and from a park one day. Two humps out of the water, along the waters edge (I saw his eye so I know it wasn't a log).

Anyway, even with the mugginess and long lines, I sure do miss it !

Sorry this is so long. I had every intention of keeping this as short as possible, really! I'll reply back to this post when pics are ready for viewing, for those who care. I envy those who are about to go! Have fun! ;o)