[SilentRascal]

It's my first full day back from having returned home from our vacation. Once again we had a fabulous time during our stay at the Poly this past week.....that is, until my wife developed 3-4 nasty-looking blisters on her feet from all the walking, her ill-fitting shoes, or a combination of things. But as for the parks and the attractions....we didn't have to miss anything that we wanted to see this time. I'll break down our week day by day and add a few comments after:

Sunday (9/25) - We arrived in Orlando and, in using Disney's Magical Express, had absolutely ZERO problems. I did notice, however, that there were no Disney reps on the main level of the Orlando Airport to greet us. We pretty much had to wander around on our own until we found the ME counter. After we arrived at the resort and checked in, we found to our delight, that we were placed in the same exact room for this trip that we had on our honeymoon 2 years ago. Just goes to show that faxed in room requests are given attention. After we dropped a few things off in our room, we immediately headed to the MK, via monorail. We were able to hit Buzz, Space Mtn, Haunted Mansion, and other rides and attractions including Mickey's Philharmagic, which we loved. We got a quick bite at Cosmic Ray's (using one of our counter service options from the Dining Plan) and hit Buzz and Space Mtn a few more times before going back for a night's rest.

Monday (9/26) - Our first full day. You'll notice that our mornings mostly started off the same way, by heading over to the MK and hitting Buzz and Space Mtn. We did other MK rides, mostly once, but spent a lot of time in Tomorrowland. We also headed over to Epcot after a little while, to catch our lunch reservations in the San Angel Inn in Mexico. We really enjoyed it - great food, wonderful atmosphere, and some kind of fabulous chocolate mousse desert that was probably the best dessert I'd eaten the entire week. We rode El Rio De Tiempo after lunch, then walked around and did SE, Test Track, Mission Space, Journey into Your Imagination, and finally, Soarin'. Soarin' was great, we both agree on that. However, for our first ride we were in the second row, so part of the experience was ruined by the seeing of other people's feet overhead. Our second take of Soarin' a few days later would put us in the top-most row. We then went back to the MK again for more visiting in Tomorrowland. We then went back to the room so my wife could rest her feet a bit. (I believe it was this day that her blister problems would begin.) After a little rest, we decided to go and eat at O'Hana. I really don't care for their revised menu from what I was used to, but the meal itself was decent. I HATE the bread pudding desert, though. (Please give me the option of pineapple and caramel sauce again the future.) After that, we decided to just enjoy a nice ferry ride from the Poly to the MK to the GF and back around again. We were able to enjoy the Wishes fireworks show while doing so, and also got an up-close view of the Electrical Water Pageant as well.

Tuesday (9/27) - Tuesday morning we had breakfast reservations for 8:20 over at Fort Wilderness. So we headed out of our room with plenty of time to spare and went to the boat dock to catch the ferry to the MK and then take the ferry from there to FW. Well, come to find out that the ferry doesn't run until 8:30. So, we head up to the monorail where we proceed to sit in it in the station at the Poly because another train is having problems on the track. We then walk to the TTC to find a bus to FW, only to be told there isn't one there. So we go back to the monorail and this time it's running. We end up getting to FW and the Trail's End Buffet at 9:00, with no wait at all and we could see why. The price was low, true enough, but the offerings were substandard, the quality no better than some run-down Shoney's. After all of this, we briefly went over to the MK for a few rides, then from there went to MGM and did all the main rides we wanted. For lunch, we went over to the Wilderness Lodge and ate at the Roaring Forks. Afterwards, we went back to our room so my wife could rest a bit. She did, and then we went back to the Magic Kingdom again. This time, after a ride on Space Mountain, we ran into my cousin and her parents. They were finishing up a ride on Space Mtn on the opposite side that we were. They had no idea we were there and we certainly weren't expecting to see them, so it was nice. Shortly after this, a pretty severe lightning (but no rain) storm developed over the MK area. So we were able to watch nature's "fireworks" going off overhead as Wishes began on our ferry ride back to the Poly. We finished watching Wishes from our room and went to bed relatively early.

(Part II is coming up soon.....)

[SilentRascal]

Wednesday (9/28) - Ate breakfast at Captain Cook's and made our way, as usual, over to the MK to start our day. This time we also were able to hit Peter Pan's Flight and Splash Mountain (both for our first and only times of this trip). We went to the Whispering Canyon for lunch (located in Wilderness Lodge) which was good, but relatively tame (compared to what I had heard goes on there). The food was decent, however we received our main dishes before our appetizers arrived. One funny thing of note during our lunch there is that there was one table of four people (they had to be in their upper 60's/early 70's) and one gentlemen yelled out that it was the birthday of a female at the table. A waiter told him it was customary when they were trying to humiliate another person for everyone to get up, take a toy pony, and gallop around the place singing "happy birthday" to the person. They did and it was pretty funny. Afterwards, we went over to MGM briefly to hit ToT and RnRC a few times, then took the boat from there over to Epcot and road Soarin' again. Soarin' was all we had time for since my wife's blisters were really breaking out and she was having a pretty tough time walking around. This time, I ran into someone I work with in The Land pavilion. Surprised me pretty good. Then, on our way back to the Poly, we hit the TTC and went over to the MK to get our Extra Magic Hour wristbands. Back at the Poly, my wife got off her feet for a bit and rested up, then decided she had the strength to head out with me to the MK again. There was another massive lightning storm during this time, and it seemed as if everyone in the World decided to get to the Extra Magic Hours because the crowds were larger at that time than during the day. We went back to our room after an hour or two, watched Wishes from our balcony, and retired for the night.

Thursday (9/29) - We started the day off again at the MK, but this time first having a good breakfast at the Crystal Palace for a character breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and friends. We tried to steer Piglet away (since I had bacon on my plate), but he pretended to cover his eyes and be "shocked". We got a few nice pictures with the characters. We did a few rides on Space and Buzz, then headed over for our only trip to AK during this vacation. We cut it short after taking in It's Tough to Be a Bug, Kilimanjaro Safaris, and a walk-through on the trail that took us to see the gorillas. I'd have preferred to go on Dinosaur and Primeval Whirl once, but my wife was in pain and not up for it. So we went back to the Poly for a little, went over to the MK again briefly, and then came back a little early so my wife could retire (which meant I retired too) for the night.

Friday (9/30) - We had no meals planned out for this day, but we went and ate breakfast at the Kona Cafe. I tried the Tonga Toast and could only manage to eat about half of it. (I'm just not a big breakfast person). But it was good, though. We then went over to the MK, then later headed out to Downtown Disney and DisneyQuest. We went over to MGM for some rides and a quick bite to eat at the Toy Story Pizza Planet, and then headed back to the resort.

Saturday (10/1) - On our last full day of our vacation, we started off by getting a bite at Captain Cook's, then we went over to the MK and stuck to our favorites in Tomorrowland until noon when my wife wanted to hit Casey's (on the corner of Main Street USA before reaching the hub) for a hot dog. We then went back to the room so my wife could freshen up and get off her feet again for a little bit. Then, we went to MGM and back to ToT and RnRC and for some souvenir shopping. We ate dinner at Mama Melrose's (and both agree to give it a thumb's down). The meal itself cost about $70 for the two of us and just wasn't very good. (Thankfully, for this whole trip, we were on the Dining Plan and it had been added to our reservation package free of charge.) After dinner, we went on RnRC again, then headed back to our room, back over the the MK briefly, and then back to our room again for the last time.

(Part III with my thoughts and other comments coming soon.....)

[SilentRascal]

Ok, so that was our trip. We had a lot of fun, even if my dear wife had to suffer with some blistered feet much of the time. I just thought I'd toss out some random comments and thoughts from the trip.

- Why in the world does the Magic Kingdom close at 6:00 pm on Friday, when it was open until at least 8:00 the rest of the week (10:00 pm on Saturday)? And.....since the park was closed at 6:00 pm on Friday, and the Extra Magic Evening Hours were two days earlier, why was there a showing of the Wishes fireworks show some 3 1/2 hours after the park was closed?

- Stitch's Great Escape. Both my wife and I agree that this attraction stinks to high heaven. Alien Encounter was pretty awful, and so Disney just replaced one awful attraction with another.

- All over the World, whether in parks or resorts, we kept seeing signs saying "please bear with us as this area is being refurbished for your future enjoyment". I didn't care too much for that, it seemed like so much was being refurbished. It was quite a nuisance when entering the MK because the entire area around the railroad station was cordoned off, and you could see the people working there during the middle of the day.

- I absolutely hated the "welcome to Stitch kingdom" addition to the monorail spiel. It's really stupid and really unnecessary. I've heard it said that the monorail voice has been changed. I couldn't tell if it was or not, it sounded awfully like it always had to me.

- Is it just me, or wasn't there some talking in one of the scenes you go past on the way out of Space Mountain? The scene in question is the one with the robotic person and their robotic dog, and the person is working on a dinosaur skeleton and looking for a bone and you see that the dog has the bone in its mouth. Wasn't there ever some talking during this?

- I spent a great deal of time in Tomorrowland and didn't see anything called The TimeKeeper anywhere in it. What exactly is it and where is it supposed to be?

- I still utterly despise the large hand, wand and writing of "EPCOT" that's on Spaceship Earth. I think it looks absolutely awful and hate to see it defaced like it is.

- I now love the scent inside Space Mountain AND Spaceship Earth. I've also noticed that most of the area in Tomorrowland smells of the same ventilation smell as Space Mtn.

- Bus transportation from the Wilderness Lodge continues to be awful. We waiting a good 25-30 minutes for the bus to MGM to come, while multiple buses for MK, AK, and Epcot all came and went.

- Magical Express worked wonderfully for us, as did our return home by checking our bags and getting our boarding passes at the resort. Everything went smoothly without any problems in the slightest.

- I was glad to see that some parents still believe in disciplining their children. A few, though, I didn't know who needed the spanking more the parent or the child. One night, while shopping in the Emporium in the MK, a child about 6 or 7 years of age through a major temper tantrum, screaming, and even throwing themselves on the floor. What does the parent do? Nothing but continue to try and coddle the kid into being "a good boy", while he continues to make an embarrassing display out of himself and his parent in front of a crowded store filled with people.

[Willbegone]

Great TR! I liked the comments. On the parent thing, well parents are really caught in a catch 22 now a days. Personally I would have told my DD if she didn't stop we would go to the bathroom and she would get a spanking. However, I've been on the receiving end of some very nasty comments from people when we get on to her and/or spank her in public so it is a very difficult spot to be in for sure.

[SilentRascal]

I also wanted to mention that even though it was just my wife and I on this trip, we did have the Dining Plan thrown in for free, and when the week was done, I tallied up the bills and we saved over $515 between us on snacks and meals. Not too shabby.

[Erin]

It sounds like you are really observant!!! :c)

[Princessbaby]

Good trip report! Sounds like you covered a lot even with your wife's blister problems!

[pumouse]

Um, photos please!

[MickeyMcFizzle]

Great TR so far! Looking forward to reading the rest!

[MickeyMcFizzle]

Great TR! I love the added comments. I too noticed the constant signs about refurbishment...it was a little annoying...

[lovemysons]

Sounds good! Sorry about the blisters though.

[LAURENGOLD]

Well, I think I have an answer to question #1

Wasn't that the first night of MNSSHP? That would explain the 6 pm closing and the fireworks after.

As for your other questions...... Don't know

I'm glad you enjoyed your trip, and the dining really payed off for you!

[SilentRascal]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is MNSSHP? I didn't notice any signs or anything indicating something else was to happen in the park after 6:00 pm on Friday.

[LAURENGOLD]

Friday was the 30th, right? That was the first night of Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.

It starts at 7:00 and goes until Midnight.

http://allearsnet.com/tp/mk/mnssh5.htm

Theres the link to the reports from that night.

[disneymom]

Great TR! Thanks for sharing. It helps to pass the time until December!