[zonecoach111]

For the next two days we did not go to Disney Parks. We did the Universal thing. My DD was flying in from BWI on Tuesday night because she didn't want to miss any class time at college. And she wanted to do the Disney Parks. We had 4 days of Disney so we decided to something else other than Disney. So on Monday, my boys and my brother Marty's family went to Universal Studio's. It was crowded but not unbearably so. I do enjoy Universal a lot. We did Shrek 4D, Twister, Earthquake, Men in Black, Terminator, Back to the Future, and The Mummy rollercoaster. My fav is Jimmy Neutron though. There is something about that ride that I really enjoy. We ate lunch at Richter's Burger Company which has decent food.

On Tuesday, we got up and went to Islands of Adventure. This is the other Universal Park which is supposed to be more like a high grade amusement park. We started out with Spiderman, and then Dr. Doom's Doomfall. We ate at Jurassic Park. We then did Dueling Dragons. I loved traveling through Toon Lagoon and Suess Landing. These two area's were very Disneyesque and I really enjoyed them. I bought a bright yellow One Fish Two Fish shirt and wore it in Disney. I was somewhat disappointed in Islands of Adventure. I didn't think they had a lot of rides. I loved Spiderman and Toon Lagoon and Suess Landing but not a whole lot other than that. My DW decided to sit Islands of Adventure out and she stayed by the pool sipping drinks and reading.


We were excited that evening because we were going to the airport to pick my DD - Melissa - up. She flew into Orlando at 10:00. We had a little trouble because my cell phone battery died in the middle of our conversation to pick her up. She wasn't sure what to do when she landed because she had to take a shuttle to the terminal. We eventually caught up to her and had a nice little reunion. She was very excited to be in Florida over her Thanksgiving break.

We rose on Wednesday morning to go to Magic Kingdom. We felt we better get their early because the crowds were going to be huge. So my immediate family and my brother Marty's family headed out to the Kingdom. We got a fast pass to Splash Mountain and went to wait in line at Big Thunder Mountain. The line wasn't too bad but our fast pass wasn't for awhile at Splash Mountain so we needed to find something else to do. We decided to do the new Mickey's Philharmonic. What a great show that is. We also did the Haunted Mansion. Then it was back to Splash Mountain and our fast pass. It was lunch time so we went to Cosmic Ray's and I used our Quick Lunch Passes here. Well worth the $11.50 that I paid for the passes. My kids could get whatever they wanted and we didn't have to worry about money exchange. In the end we saved money also. Lunch was pretty good there also and it is a fun place to be. Then it was off to Buzz LightYear and also one of my favs - Carousel of Progress. Space Mountain had a 90 minute wait as did the new Stitch ride. No Thanks! It was right about here when we discovered the cell phone game. I wrote about this in another message but basically you ring your cell phone in a crowd and watch everyone go for their phones. It was too funny. This game kept us occupied the rest of our trip.

We went over to get our picture taken with Mickey. We had one done 10 years ago and we wanted to get one just like it done again so we could frame the two pictures together. The wait was very quick. We then went to Pirates.


Again, the amount of strollers and crowds were unbelievable. Just getting through the park took forever. At about 6:00, the adults had pretty much had it for the day. We decided to leave though the kids wanted to stay. So the adults left in one car and we left my daughter to drive the rest of the gang home when they were tired. Of course they stayed until the park closed at midnight. They rode all the rides that we missed and had a great time. I was disappointed because of the huge lines at Snow White, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, Space Mountain, Stitch, etc etc. They were anywhere from 60-90 minutes. I have never been to Disney with these kinds of wait times. I think I am going to stick to the off-season in the future.

That's it for now. I will finish this off tomorrow with our Thanksgiving Celebration and our trip to Epcot and Animal Kingdom.

[Dana]

looking forward to the rest. So far it's sounds perfect...cept for the crowds.

[Disnyfan83]

Great trip report! Sorry it was crowded, but I least you were there and not at home!! My family went to my Mother-in-law's for Thanksgiving, and she didn't even serve turkey, just ham!! My kid's almost had a stroke!