[MerlinMatt]

Since I have a few more days to report, I'm going to create a single thread for all the days, including the prologue. I didn't know about the TR guidelines when I first began posting.

[MerlinMatt]

First posted on 5/25/04 at about 1am.

OK.

I PROMISE that I'll write some trip reports, but right now, we're exhausted and we're going to extend the vacation one more day through tomorrow to recuperate. Here are the high points:
* Surprising the kids was REALLY fun. DD was especially surprised. DS knew that something was up. More about that later.
* Quicksilver was AWESOME. Gregory picked us up at the airport and helped us get off to a great start.
* The Ice Cream Social re-hitching was perfect. I don't think either one of us would have been able to do the dinner one. I'll have pics later.
* 1900 and Ohana were great! 1900 was so good, we cancelled Donald's Breakfastasaurus and went back a second time this morning.
* Portobello's remains our favorite restaurant. For anyone who has or is planning on making a PS, ask to have Justin as your waiter. He is, BY FAR, the best they have.
* Marrakesh was a HUGE hit with everyone. DD danced with the belly-dancer.
* DW went on Splash Mountain. TWICE!! We're so proud of her. She did not go on RnRC, and probably for the good. Why? Because she now refers to Mission:SPACE as Mission:VOMIT. No, she didn't get sick... but she WANTED to. She'll never ride it again.
* The kids loved the new rides as well as some of the old classics they'd never seen.

I have quite a few good pictures and LOTS to report as well as my impressions and even some advice for those who are still in the planning phases of up-coming trips.

But for now, it's bed-time. I'll be posting most like starting Wednesday morning.

Matt.

Oh, and we wrote postcards on Saturday, but didn't mail them until this morning.

[MerlinMatt]

First posted on 5/25/04 at about 8pm

So, just as we had hoped, the kids had no idea, at least no clear idea. They went to bed and we did all the last minute packings (i.e. toothpaste, toothbrushes, combs, brushes, etc.) and were in bed by 10pm, looking forward to flying on 5 hours of sleep...

We got up and showered at 3am. At 3:30, we brought them into our room and took before an after pictures. DD was completely gleeful. DS was more reserved. He insists that he knew we were going somewhere, but he didn't know exactly when or where. He had thought that we were going to Europe starting on the weekend. So, it wasn't a TOTAL surprise, but he was glad we were going to WDW anyway.

JetBlue is terrific. It is our new favorite airline. DW actually enjoyed flying with them. I'll compare JetBlue to Song after all my reporting is done. (HINT: JetBlue wins hands down)

We had made arrangements with Quicksilver to get us to All-Star Sports. I had heard that Gregory (the owner) tries to be a little more hands-on with DC folks, so I was happy, but not entirely surprised to see him waiting for us when we landed at 9:15, about 15 minutes early. Gregory drives a Cadillac which was very nice. We were ready to check in at 10am on the nose.

NOTE: Travelling with carry-on baggage is the ONLY way to go. We've done it twice and I'll never do it any other way.

There was no line at the desk, but check-in wasn't flawless. We got our room preferences, but they weren't ready and there was a problem with the reservation because the tickets weren't on the room. They had to make us wait so they could re-book them. No biggie really, about 15 lost minutes.

We checked our bags and headed over to Epcot. Everyone knew we had a PS at the Ice Cream Social, but no one knew why.

The weather was perfect. It wasn't even 80 by the time we got there. The Flower Festival is a terrific time to visit Epcot.

We went on a handful of rides. DS, DD and myself went on M:S and loved it. I was convinced that DW would love it too, so she agreed to consider it later in the week. We proceeded to pic up our pictures at the gate (terrific pic of the 4 of us holding Mickey with SE in the background.) and we headed off to The Land.

When they seated us for the social, they made DW and I sit together. Then after a handful of characters came by, a CM came over and had us stand. She did her "shtick" and instucted us to kiss while she counted to 100. I won't give away the rest. It was fun and DW loves the earrings and the certificate.

I'll have pics later tonight and I'll post Day 2 tomorrow.

[MerlinMatt]

First posted on 5/27/04 at about 1pm

We started with a terrific CB at 1900 Park Fare. We managed to time the bus and monorail perfectly. Since MK was EMH, we got on the bus around 7:35, monorail by 8:05 and arrived to check in at exactly 8:20 which was our PS.

So much food!!! And so good! Since we were there so early, we got LOTS of repeat character interaction. There were also two other families from the Boston area there. There must be a lot of Disneyitis going around here.

We had a long day planned, so we figured we'd start out slow. We ate a lot and we stopped at the Main St. Barber Shop. Such a great idea. There were a handful of young tykes in front of us and we got to witness at least three different spray bottle water fights between the barber and the kids getting their cuts. It was a lot of fun. DS and DD were thrilled to get their hair colored and sprinkled with glitter. (DS opted out of the Mickey pixie dust, but DD was all over it.)

We headed over to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and I emerged as champion with 178000! Don't ask me how I did it. I haven't the foggiest idea.

DS and I went on Space Mountain while DW and DD went to the Carosel. Little did we know that DD was on a mission to ride it as many times as possible. By the time we got to them, they had already ridden it 3 times.

Then, we FP'd Philharmagic and sauntered over to Haunted Mansion while DS and I made jokes about the evil smiling dolls and how they were better off boarded up. After HM, we did Pirates, the Treehouse (which DS didn't like because he read the book only a year ago and found dozens of inaccuracies) and then walked back to Philharmagic. What a great show! That was a lot of fun. Donald is his own worst enemy. Then, we did the carosel. 3 MORE TIMES! DD was so pumped up for this!

By now, we were exhausted, as expected. We did Hall of Presidents but surprisingly, no one fell asleep. We went to Pecos Bill during the parade for a quick small bite. Pecos Bill is the worst dive in all the parks. It's like a McDonald's in a bad neighborhood. There's a smell of moldy ketchup and grease all over the place, but at least it's cool and out of the sun.

Then, it was reckoning time. Would DW ride Splash Mountain with us? First I got FP's while we discussed. They were for about a hour away, but the line was only 10 minutes long. So, she came on with us. Turns out the line was a little longer because it had shut down for about 45 minutes and there were tons of folks who had FP tickets. But she did it!

DS and I went on BTMR while DW and DD did a little shopping. We went back over to HM to pass time until the Splash Mountain FP's were good and we gave DW the option of not going on it. Well, she went on it again! So proud we were! So, afterwards, we got on the train to Main St. and took the Monorail to the Poly for dinner at Ohana.

Ohana: great place to have dinner.... once in a while. The food was very good. I loved the Lapu Lapu and DW loved the coconut drink. The entertainment was cute. DD had fun with the coconut roll and the hula hoop contest. There must have been 5 or six tables with birthdays. That got a little old after a while, wishing "happy birthday" to all of our "cousins." I'd do it again, but not right away. I recommend a year between visits.

By far, however, the highlight was Wishes. They dim the lights and they pipe in the music from MK. We had a table right by the window and could see the Castle just to the left of the rock in back of the Poly. The color changing on the castle was beautiful and the fireworks were terrific. A bunch of little kids came over to the window and it was great listening to them "oooohhhh.... ahhhhhhhh.... wow!!!!!" for the entire show. We all had a great time.

Back over to the MK to wait for buses... there was a little magic going on. They were slow. And then I noticed that one of the resorts got a tour bus instead of a regular Disney bus. We just missed a bus and were about 8 or 9 people back when I joked, "Hey! I want one of the tour buses!" Guess what!? We got one! So the ride back to Sports was actually quite comfy. DD and DS were fast asleep in minutes.

Tomorrow... the walking adventure and time to throw out the schedule.

[MerlinMatt]

First posted on 5/30/04 at about 8am

In case you haven't figures this out yet, the McDonnells tend to do things against the grain. My morning commute is against traffic and I like it that way. When we're at the parks, we like to be places where others are not.

So, on Friday, we decided to see the rope-drop ceremony at Epcot. It was actually quite disappointing. A few Epcot CM's rolling around on Seque's yelling into a megaphone. (Didn't help, I still couldn't hear.) At least now I can say that I saw it.

The funniest part however was watching as the CM's begged for people not to run into the park after the ropes were dropped. There were at least 2 dozen people that ran directly to either M:S or TT.

Anyway, we hadn't had breakfast and in the tradition of going against the grain, we walked straight trhough to the International Gateway and over to the Boardwalk for breakfast at Spoodles. It made us smile when a CM stopped us on the garden path and asked us what we were looking for. Apparently, there are a number of guests who make their way back to the World Showcase first thing in the morning only to be disappointed that it dosen't actually open until 11am.

Breakfast was great, as expected. We had breakfast here last year as well. There's a breeze in the morning at the Boardwalk and the french doors across the front of the restaurant are left open. It's like having breakfast on a veranda. Both the food and the atmosphere are great.

Spoodles wasn't on our "schedule", so we deceded to toss the day's schedule altogether. We walked over MGM to get the few rides we wanted to see out of the way. I got FP's for RnRC while the three of them watched the Star Wars parade. DS really liked the clones and the battle robots.

We did the Great Movie Ride. Is it me, or is this ride totally hit or miss? Our "guide" seemed like she was going to be pretty good, but she turned out to be very plastic. And the bank robber wasn't much better. Then we walked over the RnRC. As a family, we are HUGE Aerosmith fans. DW and DD got out at the yellow door. The pre-show is kinda funny. DS and I screamed (happily) through the whole ride, so we didn't notice the music much once the ride started. It is the most "comfortable" roller coaster I've ever been on. You're pushed into your seat the whole time. I think DD will ride it next time, but DW can't go upside down. She's got some kind of inner ear thing going on which was exploited on Mission:Space. I get to that on Sunday's TR.

So, we did Star Tours and we couldn't wait to leave. None of us really care for MGM. It seems more crowded than it needs to be and frankly, it feels no different than a Six Flags. We were glad to get out of there. Between the sun and all the walking, we were exhausted. So, we waited for the boat and the four of us slept all the way back to Epcot (about 35 minutes).

We wandered around the countries and did a little shopping. We stopped in Mexico and bought DW a pair of sandals. IMO, the Mexico Pavillion is one of the best places to shop. Prices are OK, but more importantly, most of the things in there are actually useful! We did "El Rio Del Tiempo" (aka, "The Mexican Home of the Evil Smiling Dolls). If IASW can be cleaned up and enhanced like this ride, I might actually like it again.

We walked over to The Land for a quick snack and were disappointed to find a 35 minute wait for the ride. We never did get to ride that. Is it that good? I haven't ridden it for years and I can barely remember it anymore.

Then, we walked back over to the WS and took a boat to Morrocco for dinner at Marrakesh. All I can say is WOW. The service was terrific. The food was excellent. Dessert was quite good and the entertainment was fun. DD went out to belly dance with the dancer.

IllumiNations was spectacular. The kids were having such a great time that both DW and I got tears in our eyes during the show. This was turning out to be a great vacation. After the show, we took the long way around and walked REALLY slow back to the buses. The line was still really long. Apparently, there hadn't been a bus in over 30 minutes. But then they started coming one after another and we were on a bus in about 20 minutes. We were exhausted.

Tomorrow, rest day and La Nouba!.

[MerlinMatt]

WHEW! That's the best way to describe how we felt by Saturday morning. We hadn't really stuck to the schedule. We had already gotten MGM out of the way and we had already done all the rides that we had really wanted to do. We weren't exactly driving ourselves really hard, but we had 3 long days in a row.

Wednesday, we were up at 3am and didn't get to bed until after 10pm. Thursday we had a CB at 8:20 and saw Wishes from Ohana at 9pm. We weren't in bed until nearly 11. Then Friday, although we didn't get up real early (7:30) we walked all day and after IllumiNations, we didn't get to bed until about 11pm again.

So, on Saturday, we didn't get up until around 8am, had breakfast and hung around the pool until after noontime. It was a great morning. The weather began a tad cloudy, but all was clear by 9:30 and we had a good 3 hours in the sun. We finished our postcards, picked up our stuff from the gift shop and generally had a very relaxing morning.

We had lunch at DTD around 2:30. Earl of Sandwich is about the best lunch we've had in a long time. HIGHLY recommended if you're at DTD in the middle of the day. Everything on the menu is great, even for kids (DD had a very nice grilled cheese).

We did some shopping and wandered slowly over to the West Side. We had tix for La Nouba at 6pm. We spent about 90 minutes or so at DisneyQuest. It's fun, but as I said in another thread, it's really not worth the price of admission if you have to pay for it. We had our UPHs, so it was neat. We love the Pirates of the Carribbean game. We made it to "Kings of the High Seas." Next time we go back, we're going to be Masters.

La Nouba was everything we had hoped for. They are so elegant and masterful, not to mention fun and quite entertaining. All four of us had a great time.

We had dinner again at Portobello Yacht Club and it was another terrific meal. Because we're repeat customers, they comped us our appetizer. It was a great way to cap off a relaxing day.... BUT MK is open late on Saturday nights and we had never seen SpectroMagic.

So, we hopped on a bus to the Contemporary at 9:40. As we were driving through the woods, we could see that the 10pm Wishes had already begun. On our walk from the Contemporary, we could see the finale. It was very cool.

Then we got to Main St. WOW! I hadn't seen Main St at night in nearly 20 years. And the changing colors on the castle were just so beautiful. It was about 10:20 by the time we got to Main St. and people were already grabbing their spots for the 11pm parade. So we did the same. Just hanging out on Main St. and watching all the people was fun.

SpectroMagic is a TERRIFIC parade, and it's SOOO LONG! We were stunned. It started promptly at 11pm. The first surprise is that it goes backwards. It starts at the train station and comes up Main St. towards the castle. Second was that it was nearly 40 minutes. It just kept coming and coming. It was great.

Despite our late start and relaxing at the pool, we were exhausted again. We slept on the bus on the 25 minute ride home. We weren't asleep until close to 1am.

Tomorrow, Typhoon Lagoon and evening on the Boardwalk.

[jbtoursejg]

gREAT REPORTS-THANK YOU!!.
ONE NOTE-THE PARADE GOES THE OTHER DIRECTION FOR THE FIRST DHOWING OF THE NIGHT, I BELIEVE.

[Dana]

MATT-

Loving your report. Waiting to hear the rest, so don't take to long in posting it. kidding now,....you can stretch it out a bit.

[MerlinMatt]

Almost forgot. Here are the pictures that I posted last week:

http://www.walmart.com/agt/bounce.gs...84EC4D2FF3306E

[Dana]

Originally Posted by Matt McDonnell

Almost forgot. Here are the pictures that I posted last week:

http://www.walmart.com/agt/bounce.g...884EC4D2FF3306E

Matt the page in unavailabvle. You tease...

[MerlinMatt]

Originally Posted by Dana

Matt the page in unavailabvle. You tease...

Try it again. I messed up the link. I just edited it. It works now.

[Dana]

AWWW!!! Great Pictures. You have yourself one beautiful Family Matt. I love the one outside of the Barber shop...very cool with the shades..lol Thanks for posting them. You made my day!!! Love the O'hanna one too. My DD did the hula hoop contest and didn't fare so well...she's determined to whoop butt this time around. Thanks agan for posting them.

[tiggerlover1971]

great trip report so far

[lawwin]

Matt, I love those pictures. I think I have that same picture of me with eeyore. Your kids are absolutely adorable.

[MerlinMatt]

Originally Posted by lawwin

Your kids are absolutely adorable.

Thank God they get their looks from DW and not me.

One thing I forgot to post about Day 2.

DS's birthday was the day before we left, so I told everyone and I secretly hoped that something would be in the room when we finally checked in. But no luck.

So, Day 2 was jam-packed and capping it off with seeing Wishes from Ohana was great.

When we got back to the room, there were 3 Happy Birthday baloons with a card and a personalized and signed photo of the Mouse himself.

Now THAT'S Disney magic.