[PiratesFan]

Hello All!!

We just got back home from a 2 week trip to FL with 9 days at WDW. Just to cover the basics, we (myself, DW, DD-5, and DD-7) took 2 days to drive to Orlando from NJ to stay at the Poly for 8 nights. The rest of our trip was spent visiting the St. Augustine area historical sites, and stopping at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. on the return trip. We took both 35mm film and over 2500 digital photos, plus some 8mm video. I hope to provide a detailed and informative trip report. So without further delay, here goes Day 1.

DAY 1: Sunday, July 10

The ride down to S.C. the previous day was fairly uneventful, except for lots of traffic in VA. We left Santee S.C. at 4:40 am and arrived in WDW by 11:30am. The weather was actually not that hot due to the winds caused by hurricane Dennis that week. Check-In at the Poly was very smooth and they actually honored our room request for Niue room 1705, which was also ready for us. We stayed in this room on our last trip in 2003 and loved the close location to the pools, snack bar, and the Great Ceremonial House. When we made reservations this time, we had them put the room request on our reservation. I also faxed the Poly adressed to the room assigner, 4 days prior to our arrival, requesting the room. I don't know what really worked in our favor but we were sure glad of the result.

Our first stop was our traditional Lunch in the Kona Cafe with a Big Kahuna Burger and an Iced Tea. Great as usual. Next was the monorail to the MK to get right into the experience. We headed directly to the Pooh ride since we promised this to our DD-7 because the last time we were there the ride was down for refurbishment. The wait was about 15 min. My 2 DDs racked up a nice little bill in the Pooh gift shop. We let them go a little nuts because this is their favorite ride/character.

We took notice of the walled off area for the Pooh Hundred Acre Playground. I noticed how the ranch style fence they placed in front of the walls actually contacted one wall. My mind started buzzing, so I had my DW stand up on the top rail to get a digital camera shot over the wall to see what the construction looked like. She actually took a pretty good blind shot of the area which I will attach to this post.

After leaving this area we headed straight to the Haunted Mansion per my younger DD-5's request. There was no line so we went right in. I love this ride. We exited and decided to do some browsing and light shopping in the Main St. Emporium to get a feel of what new items were being offered since last trip. It was getting a little late so we headed back to the Poly to get our luggage out of the van and into our room. As a surprise to our DDs, we took the monorail over to the Contemporary for Dinner at Chef Mickey's. The meal was great as usual with the prime rib and parmesian mashed potatos being my on-going favorite.

After dinner, we went back to the room for a little while to relax, unpack, and organize, then we headed back to the MK while the 9:00 Spectro was in progress. We headed to Tomorrowland and went on Buzz with no wait, then rode the TTA 2 times in a row while Wishes was filling up the sky. Next was Stitch's Great Escape with about a 5 min wait to enter the que area. I am glad I did not read the spoilers about this ride. [Spoiler Alert... skip now] I did not see Alien Encounter to compare, but I was a bit disappointed on how for the second half of the ride was mainly held in the dark with little going on except for the dialog and some laser cannon flashes. I thought the surround sound effects were top notch. I could not, however, get the smell of chili out of mind for a couple of days though. It seemed everwhere there was food cooking, I smelled....well....Stitch. After this "experience" we left the MK just as the 11:00 Spectro parade was starting to call it a day to rest up for an early start in the MK.

[dznygrl]

PiratesFan, thanks for the great start to the TR and the pics! I am really looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip...

Thanks a million for that great shot of the construction of the Pooh area, too! It looks like it is coming along really fast...I'm excited to see it when it's completed! Although I still wish they would've just brought back the subs.

[missy H]

Greaet trip report so far. Loved the pictures, it's good to see the new pooh playground. Did it say when it would be finished?

Can't wait to read the rest!

[Dopey]

This is a great report....no taking breaks now please. Onward with the story...

[DisneyTeacher]

What a wonderful first day, I can't wait for the rest.

[EmpressJenny]

We saw that area under construction yesterday, and Pete was convinced that it had something to do with Pooh. He will be so pleased to be right!

[PiratesFan]

DAY 2 Monday, July 11

We started out the day with breakfast in the Kona Cafe where I finally had my Tonga toast!! Great as usual. We headed out to the MK around 10:30 to spend a full day there. Our first stop was Adventureland and the Jungle Cruise which was packed so we otained FPs. My 2 DDs wanted to go on the Alladin ride but it too was very crowded so we decided to go on POC - whoo hoo!! As we left POC, my cousin called on his cell phone. Before we left NJ we knew that he too was going to be in WDW the same time as we were so we planned on meeting on this day. It turned out that he was right around the corner in front of the Jungle Cruise. After talking for a little while, my kids and his DD went on Alladin's Magic Carpets. We had to part company because we had a 1:10 PS for lunch at the Crystal Palace. We were seated around 1:25 where the food was good as usual. We were a little annoyed that it took around one hour after our seating for Pooh and Piglet to come by our table. At this point we were finished with lunch and only had drinks to keep us busy. Our server called over a CM in charge of character coordination and he said that due to the size of the restaurant, it takes about an hour for all of the characters to circulate. With that, Pooh and Piglet appeared to make the rounds in our direction.

After lunch we headed back to the room to organize some of our purchases and for me to take the kids in the pool. Meanwhile, my DW went to a few stores in the Poly to purchase a few items for the surprise buckets we were going to give the kids. She bought them some Mickey ear shovels, Mickey pretzels, and some candy. The sand buckets were then hiding for them under the sink.

We headed back to Fantasyland in the MK after the afternon cool down. Small World was absolutely packed with a line outside and Peter Pan had a 1 hour wait. The skies were threatening with a thunderstorm so we headed to Snow White that displayed a 30 min wait. It turned out to be only 15 minutes. With light rain, we bought some ponchos for the kids and traveled to the Country Bear Jamboree.

The kids were hungry and the rain became heavier so we opted to go back to the Poly, do some penny pressing, and grab a bite at the snack bar, Capt. Cooks. Regarding the Poly, I learned a few new things. For one, all of the stores on the first floor were gone, mostly replaced by one large store called the BouTiki, to which we bought a limited edition pin issued for the grand opening. The store was really divided between some Hawaiian and Lilo/Stitch themed merchandise and more casual wear with golf shirts. The closed stores were taken up by new rest rooms across from Capt. Cooks, and by a closed off area around the bend which I learned would be the new location of Capt. Cooks with an expanded menu. The snack bar is actually going to be closed fairly soon to accomplish the move. I can only hope that they improve the quality of the food on the menu and find a way to speed up the service. I complain about this place all the time because for a deluxe resort, the guests deserve better. My biggest food complaint is that all of their burgers are cooked to well done because they use a tractor feed broiler to cook both burgers and chicken and can't accomodate cooking preferences. Additionally, the grill closes at 11:00 pm, where I always noticed on my drink refill trips, long lines of people buying any old thing that was left over. Maybe the higher-ups in Disney have finally taken the hint.

After the kids were sleeping, I downloaded the digital camera photos taken during the day into the laptop, recharged the camera batteries, and jotted down some notes for the trip report. This was to be a common occurrence each and every night, sometimes getting to bed well after 1 am. On this night it was around 12:30am.

[PiratesFan]

DAY 3 Tuesday, July 12

Today was EPCOT day, with an early start for an 8:30 PS for the Princess Breakfast in Akershus in Norway. When we arrived at the EPCOT parking tolls around 7:45, we noticed that the lanes were all closed. A CM told us that they do not open up the parking lot until 8:00. Now once we were let in, we had to hustle to make it from the parking lot, through security, ticket gate, and to Norway in the World Showcase. We arrived at the Akershus podium at 8:25. Not a lot of time to spare if you ask me. When we were seated about 10 min later, we were fortunate to get a table right where the characters came out, so we got to see Jasmine, Belle, Aurora, Snow White, and Mulan rather early during our breakfast. The food was plentiful and very good.

PiratesFan WDW Tip #1: Many vendors in WDW have a separate spot in their cash registers for shinny pennies set aside for use in the penny presing machines.

After breakfast, we headed over to the Land since the Norway ride, Maelestrom, did not open up until 11:00. I really wanted to be first on line to get the Viking helmet, however, I did see a kid walking around wearing it later during the day. We got our FPs for Soarin' around 10am to return between 11:18 to 12:18. The Living With The Land Boat ride had a 10 min posted wait, so we eagerly decided to go on it. Turned out the 10 min wait was was a walk on. I really enjoy this ride, especially the greenhouses.

Since we had more time to wait until Soarin', we headed to the Living Seas. Outside we got pictures of the kids with two of the coral characters with the remote control Nemo. No sign of the Sea Cabs yet. We looked around at the Nemo themed fish tank room as I call it, some other displays, kids took a picture in Bruce's mouth, and looked round the gift shop. I love the Nemo theme as far as the movie is concerned, but I felt it was too overpowering in relation to existing Living Seas theming. The Living Seas , to me, always had a poorly developed story line for an attraction, unlike the Land which you could understand its purpose throughout the attraction. The Nemo theme does color things up a bit, but does not really add much to the story of the sea.

Turtle Talk with Crush had a long line, but since we were almost in the zone for Soarin', we left, determined to come back to see the rest of the attraction, especially Turtle Talk.

Soarin' was absolutely fantastic! In true Disney style, it was a great experience to the senses. I think the feeling is unanimous, since when we used our FPs, the stand-by wait was up to 80min. The couple ahead of us was actually on the ride for the second time that day.

By now, we were getting tired out from the heat and lines, so we decided to travel off property to eat at Shoney's and go back to the room for a little while. We took the monorail to EPCOT around 7:00 to basically hang out by the Lake around the World Showcase for Illuminations at 9:00, which we never saw before. The kids napped in their strollers for a little while. Illuminations was absolutely great. I actually liked it better than Wishes but the disadvantage is that you need a good unobstructed view of the lake. Since the park closed at 9:00, the end of the show signaled the mass exodus of people. During the show, we noticed a girl holding a lighted souvenir EPCOT mug. She told us she purchased it at the counter where they sold McDonalds chicken nuggets and fries. When we arrived there after Illuminations, they said that they could not sell it to us as the park was closed and that they logged off of their registers already. I thought this was a rediculous way of doing business. Then I realized that almost every vendor had a PDA type of cash register, which was most likely linked to a main computer system that could tell the higher ups how much money was being collected exactly when, where, and how much. Again, we had to leave this for another day when we returned. The monorail back to the TTC was a painless and relaxing trip. We ended the night with a short swim in the pool. Most of the swimming involved dodging the bugs in the pool.

PiratesFan

[Erin]

I just can't get over how fabulous the castle looks.

PiratesFan, this is a wonderful trip report. I'm loving the detail. Keep the good stuff coming!

[JiminyCricket]

Great trip report! Glad you and your family had a fantastic time. Nice pic of the castle BTW.

[Pooh Fan]

Thanks for the TR. I am loving it. Keep it coming!

[lovemysons]

Great report so far! Gotta love the Kona Cafe, huh? And thanks for posting the pictures. They are a great way to start the day!

[ssn]

Sounds like you had a great trip!!!! I SOOOOO agree with your comments regarding Capt Cook. I was so disappointed with the food there as well. The food courts at the moderate resorts have much better food!! So glad they're making changes at the Poly (was the only thing I didn't like about that resort)!

[SplashMtnMan]

Wonderful TR, sounds like a great trip...keep it coming!

[PiratesFan]

DAY 4 Wednesday, July 13 (The day we lost a lot of Disney Magic)

Thanks for all of the positive responses and encouragement. I know how much I enjoy reading them myself so I this is my way to hopefully give something back.

Day 4 started out with a late arrival to MGM around 10:00 am. We planned on staying in MGM until 2pm where we would leave to head out to Titusville to hopefully see the Space Shuttle launch. Not knowing the MGM show schedule, we didn't realize that the Xtreme Stunt Show only had 3 showing that day and we missed the FPs for around 12pm. The next show was aound 3pm which we would have to miss to have a chance at seeing the shuttle go up. We figured we could go back to MGM to see it at a later time.

We first got some photos and autographs with Pinnochio. Standing on line is when I noticed that it was going to be especially hot that day. If felt like someone turned it up and extra 5-10 degrees. Next stop was Playhouse Disney around 10:45 with a short line-up for the 11:15 show. We promised our kids we would see this as we skipped it on our last trip. As we waited on line, I volunteered to buy us a few water bottles. As I approached one vendor around 11:00, they told me that they were not opened. I had to walk a good ways to find a stand that was open. I found this to be a somewhat frequent occurrence in the parks that rather disturbed me. Years ago, rope drop meant that everything was open, ready to take on the day. I actually enjoyed seeing Playhouse Disney on Stage because of the familiarity my DDs 5 and 7 had from watching the shows and characters.

Next was a FP for the Voyage of the Little Mermaid for 11:50-12:00. The normal line was not that long but the FP gave us the opportunity to not have to stand in the line for the next show, whereby we sat in the shade near the Brown Derby. After seeing the show, they really should change the name of the show to the Short Voyage of the Little Mermaid. It was like Ursula appears, a couple of strobe lights flash, Arial gets her legs, kisses her man, and the curtain closes. What's up with this. It was shorter than I remember 2 years ago, and that was even shorter than seeing it the 2 years before that. Oh well, my kids still loved it.

Next was a cruise down Mickey Avenue to get photos and autographs with JoJo and Goliath, then Woody and Buzz. We were getting hungry, so we thought we would go to the Backlot Express since they had something all of us would like. Well, the Backlot Express was like a Backlot Parking Lot - It was completely packed. MGM itself was pretty packed for that matter. I don't know if I am right, but it seems that the attendance of MGM has been up in the last few years.

Since we were very hot, tired, and hungry, we opted to leave the park aound 2:30 in favor of getting a bite on the road, off property at McDs, and travelling towards Titusville and Cocoa Beach to see the shuttle launch. Little did we know it, but on the drive out on the Bee Line Expressway, the launch was scrubbed. There were no breaks in the grassy median between the east and west lanes so we basically were stuck going east anyway. As we got closer, we could see miles of cars heading back west towards what I assume is Orlando. The kids napped and we finaly got on I95 north and took a couple of small roads back west. When we did get back on I-4, the skies opened up with a torrential downpour and lighting storm, so we were delayed even more in traffic. Once we got through the flooded streets of DTD, the ground was dry near the Poly. It was very wierd going from flood to dry in a matter of a few minutes. Total time of lost magic was from 2:30 to when we got back to the room at 6:15. The kids had some pizza at Capt. Cooks and we watched the Electric Water Pageant. My only complaint here is that the Water Pageant used to give a separate show for the GF in front of the marina and then travel in front of the beach of the Poly. Now there was only one showing with the Water Pageant extending in front of the Poly marina (south of the GF) to a small amount of beach in front of the Poly.

Since we didn't eat very well all day, we ordered room service just this one time. The CM was great. It turned out he had been busing tables since day one of the
Poly's opening. We reminisced a little about the restaurant before Ohanas, Papeate Bay Veranda. We finally saw Wishes from the beach of the Poly while the kids played with their new Mickey shovels in the sand. The evening was capped off by organizing the room a little and then planning the next day.

PiratesFan