Orlando August 2010 Part 2

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Day 2 - August 16 - Disney Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom

For day 2 the plan was to go to Disney Hollywood Studios (DHS) in the morning and Magic Kingdom (MK) in the evening.

The view on my walk

One of the things I really enjoy about staying at Disney's Boardwalk Villas (DBV) is that I like to take a walk in the morning and the walk from DBV to DHS is a beautiful and pleasant walk. So, our first morning at Walt Disney World I was very much looking forward to that walk. As always the walk was beautiful... but not so pleasant. Orlando. August. Even at 7:00 in the morning it was HOT! I made it to DHS and back, but barely.

I got back to the room and made breakfast for the kids. Another great thing about staying at  DBV (or any DVC property for that matter - actually any timeshare resort) is the kitchen. I love being able to get breakfast and coffee without leaving the room. Anyway, we had a nice breakfast and were out of the room by 8:00. We went down to the boat dock and caught the boat to DHS. We were in the park at 8:30.

One thing I had really been talking up to the kids was Toy Story Midway Mania (TSMM). After we entered the park I suggested we go straight to get FastPasses (FPs) for TSMM. As we were walking there one of the kids said "Did you say Toy Story midway Mania? Because there was a sign that said it was closed." I asked a Cast Member (CM) who was taking pictures and she confirmed TSMM was closed. I asked for how long and she said 2 weeks. Bummer. No TSMM this trip.

twinsies

"Understand the Gravity of the Situation"

TSMM or no TSMM, as always the first order of business is to go on as many rides as possible and get as many FPs as possible. We turned back and headed down Sunset Blvd toward The Hollywood Tower Hotel and G-Force Records. We picked up FPs for Rock 'n Roller Coaster (RnRC) and rode Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (TZToT). After riding Nat and Marie found it necessary to by matching T-shirts in the gift shop. I should point out that I find the TZToT gift shop to be one of my favorites and I always spend at least a few minutes there after riding. We then hit The Great Movie Ride (GMR) and headed back to use our FPs at RcRC. I should point out here that Gabby had always been hesitant to ride roller coasters. RnRC is a pretty radical one for someone who is not a big coaster person but she rode it and loved it. After some deliberation (another RcRC FP or a TZToT FP?) we got FPs for RnRC. The line was short at TZToT but Charlotte and Gabby were not interested in riding again, so while Nat, Marie and I did that Charlotte and Gabby went into full regression mode and visited The Honey I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure (HIStK).

It was now about noon and we were getting hungry, so after we finished TZToT we collected Charlotte and Gabby from HIStK and headed over to The 50's Prime Time Cafe (50sPT). Our reservation was not until 12:25 but were were pretty much able to get in right away. Though the food is mediocre I've always felt that the main attraction of 50sPT is the "show" not the food. As always we had a blast and the kids really enjoyed being "abused" by the CMs. The cost of lunch was $73 including tip.

After lunch we rode RnRC again, then enjoyed the shopping along Sunset Blvd and Hollywood Blvd. We left the park about 2:30 and headed back to the room. We napped, relaxed, swam and, in the case of Charlotte and Gabby, watched "The Goofy Movie". I can't tell you how many times over the course of the next few days that I heard one of them say "The leaning tower of CHEEZ-A!" followed by much laughter. 



On Main Street

 We had dinner in the room, left about 7:15 and started on our way to The Magic Kingdom (MK). We arrived at about 8:00. It was a hot night and the park was crowded, but there's just something about showing up at MK for the first time on a trip and seeing Cinderella Castle again that just puts a smile on your face. I actually purposefully made sure our first time in MK for the trip would be at night because there is something especially magical about the park at night. For everyone in our party except me it had been a while since their last visit and I really wanted to see their faces light up when seeing the park for the first time, in all it's night-time glory. Actually - I have not mentioned this yet - this was Gabby's first trip to WDW. We had been seeing the celebration buttons all over ("It's My Birthday", "It's Our Anniversary", etc) and we realized we needed to get Gabby a "1st Visit" button - so we went to Guest Services and got one. And of course the rest of us got the "I'm Celebrating" button (which, to me, is a bit like those "I'm With Stupid" shirts...)


Anyway, we headed to Adventureland where we went on Pirates of the Caribbean (PotC) and Haunted Mansion (HM). On our way our of Adventureland we stopped and got Dole Whips. (I recently read that D23 had a survey of the favorite WDW snacks and the Dole Whip won, I mean... what else?) Anyway we headed over to Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain. We also did the Autopia - which is especially fun with a group (OK I know that's not what it is called but it will always be Autopia to me).

Finally we went to Main Street for some shopping, and I stopped at Casey's Corner for a "Grand Slam" hot dog. We headed out of the park about 11:00 and went back to our hotel.

Orlando August 2010 Part 3

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Day 3 - August 17 - Universal Orlando

This was it. The big day. The day that we've all been waiting for. Universal Orlando and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! Even with all that excitement we all decided to sleep in and take it easy in the morning. My experience from the morning before, unfortunately, left me with little desire to repeat my morning walk. So, after sleeping in we had a leisurely breakfast and hung out in the room or by the pool. I had made arrangements with a local car service to pick us up at 12:30 and take us to Universal Orlando (UO).


Before I go on I wanted to write a bit about transportation while at WDW. I listen to the podcast run by the folks at the Disney Information Station. Recently they have had many conversations about the pros and cons of renting a car while at WDW. Basically, there was a sentiment that it is always a better idea to bring your own car. The reasoning is that having your own car fives you the freedom to eat off site which is almost always cheaper and often you get better food. They even went so far as to say that the savings on food alone could save the cost of a rental car. I don't necessarily agree with this, however. To me it depends on what kind of experience you are looking to have, obviously how much you want to spend and, in a very large part, where you are staying.


First there is the obvious choice of staying offsite - clearly you would need to rent a car. So the question is - what about if you're staying onsite? In my mind it's all about location. If you are staying onsite obviously you really don't need to have a car as Disney provides transportation via bus, monorail and boat. The thing is, for a lot of the resorts - the budget resorts line the All Stars as an example - the only choice are the buses. And in my mind, if you are staying at one of the "bus only" resorts then the choice of renting a car is a good one. On the other hand, if you are staying at one of the resorts with other options for transportation other than the buses then I really think it's better to leave the car at home. I think that once you get in a car you break that "Disney bubble". Now, taking the bus breaks that bubble too a bit, and it's not possible to avoid the buses altogether, but I don't think taking the buses break that bubble nearly as much as getting in your car does.


I have often stayed at WDW on trips with my friend Kirk when we stayed at budget resorts or offsite and we always bring a car (Kirk lives in Jacksonville and drives down to Orlando). We actually rarely go off site anyway, but we do find that the convenience of having a car is great when your only other option is taking the bus. On this trip, however, we were staying at The Boardwalk and there simply is no better location in WDW, Period. Yeah, I know - what about the monorail resorts? Well, sure, you can take the monorail to MK (and Epcot if you don't mind switching trains), but at DBV you can get to three parks without taking the bus. Obviously Epcot is an easy walk, and you can walk to DHS as well. In addition the boat is a good choice for both of those as well. As for MK, while I would recommend the bus if you're going to MK directly from DBV, you can, if you really want to avoid the bus, walk or boat to Epcot, then take the monorail to the Ticket & Transportation Center (TTC) and get to MK from there. It's a bit of a long way, and it should be noted that you can only do it if you have a "Park Hopper" option, it still is an alternate route if you want to take it.


So, back to our trip...


In our case we had no car and I had decided that our best option for getting to UO was to take a car service. There are car service options that are cheaper - generally they charge per person and have set routes and schedules. I chose to go with a service that provided a car and driver just for us. With 5 of us the price difference was not too much. Anyway, after lunch we headed down to the lobby entrance to meet our car. The car the service provided was a van. Our driver was a gentleman name Suresh. On the ride over we started chatting with Suresh. We learned that he only drives part-time and that someone he is related to (sorry, Suresh, I forgot who) either owns or manages the car service (LINCS). We also learned that Suresh has 2 daughters of his own. We had a wonderful drive over and be the time we got there we were all the best of friends.


We had Park Hopper passes for UO (or whatever UO calls them) so I suggested we had to Universal Studios (US) first. My reasoning was thet I had heard the WWoHP is much less crowded toward the evening. We got there a little after 1:00 and it was HOT! We turned left and headed into the park. The first attraction we got to was "The Mummy". The sign read 20 minutes which isn't bad (it was actually 14). This was the second or third time for me on this ride - it's a winner in my book. A nice mix of roller coaster and dark ride. No Indiana Jones at Disneyland, but still a good ride. 


After that we checked out Disaster! but the line was too long and outside and it was too hot for such a long line while exposed to the Florida heat. We then went to the Amityville section where they were giving out "Fastpass" like tickets for JAWS. We picked up some tickets (which had a return time of later that afternoon). We were then at the back of the park and decided to ride The Simpsons. Another long line (the sign read 45 minutes) but at least the line was covered. I had never been on this before (although I had been on Back to the Future at Universal Hollywood which uses the same ride system. One great thing about the Simpsons is that the queue area is very entertaining with a very funny Simpson vidoe on the monitors. The line ended up being about 25 minutes at any rate, so it wasn't bad. And what a terrific ride! if you are sensitive to motion simulators you might want to think twicw, but otherwise I stongly recommend this. It is fun, exciting and extremely funny!


We then headed around to Twister which we rode with a 15 minute wait. I know this ride (show?) is not the greatest but the queue area is well themed and the cyclone effect is pretty cool. We contemplated going back to use our JAWS passes. I voted "yes" but was over-ruled. (ed. note - sine then the destruction of Amityville and JAWS has begun for the rumored Harry Potter expansion. I really wish I pushed them to do JAWS - that was our last chance and, as for myself, I've never done it. Oh well...)


On our way out of the Studios we passed Rip Ride'n Rocket where the posted wait was only 10 minutes. Marie and Gabby begged out so Nat, Charlotte and I rode. The wait ended being essentially a walk-on. The coaster tries to be sort of like Rock'n Roller Coaster, except in this case you pick your own music to ride to. When it came time to choose your song I looked at the list and was longing for "none of the above". I ended up with a ZZ Top song only because it seemed the least objectionable. I have since heard that some folks discovered that there were hundreds of "hidden songs" that you could choose if you know the code (someone mentioned riding to "Rainbow Connection"). And apparently Universal discovered this oversight andclosed that loop. Anyway, we rode the coaster and I have to say... I've ridden that coaster. I never have to again. And this is from a guy who lves a good coaster. Rip Ride'n Rocket simply is not a good coaster. It is rough, annoying and headache inducing. Nat agreed with me though Charlotte enjoyed it.


At about 3:00 we decided to leave the studios and head over to Islands of Adventure (IOA) and WWoHP. On our way we stopped at Ben & Jerry's for sundaes. We entered IOA at about 4:00. On our way toward WWoHP we passed Jurrasic park (JP). I should mention here that Gabby had been expressing a lack of any desire to ride either coasters or flumes with a large drop. Charlotte and I had both been trying to convince her that she should, at the least, try Splash Mountain at MK but Gabby was not interested. As we passes JP we were looking at it and everyone agreed we should try it out, but Gabby was concerned about the drop. Now, the thing is, the drop at JP is, I think, at least as radical as Splash. However, much of the drop at JP is covered by the ride building so it does not look that big. So, Gabby agreed to ride. And she loved it! Right then she agreed to try Splash when we went back to MK. (If you're interested the posted wait was 45 minutes but actually 15)


After JP we stopped at a stand and bought some frut for a snack. And finally... off to WWoHP!

Refreshmenst at one end of the park...

OK, first things first. This park is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. The level of theme-ing in IOA is very high in general, but the Universal designers have absolutely outdone themselves with this park. It is, hands down, one of the most beautiful themed areas in any theme park - Disney or otherwise. As soon as we got there everyone wanted a butterbeer. We were looking for a lace to get one and we noticed a young man standing near us in his full Harry Potter regalia including the Hogwarts uniform, robe and everything. I found myself feeling sorry for the folks that work there and have to wear these hot costumes in the August Florida heat. Anyway, we asked this particular young man where we can get a butterbeer. "I don't work here" he replied. Ooops. Anyway, everyone got butterbeer - except Gabby that is, who opted for a pumpkin juice ($16). Well, I didn't get one either but I did take a sip of both Nat's and Charlotte's. And I have to say it's quite good - sort of a butterscotch flavored cream soda (which, interestingly, is sort of what I imagined it would taste like.


We looked around the park and admired all the details. A very fun thing are the windows in the shops that have funny little in jokes (in one for a broom shop by example you can see a golden snitch flying around). We also passed a shop with a dress in one of it's windows. All of girls exclaimed "Oh my God! That's it!" This is when I was yet again reminded of the vast difference between the sexes. I looked at the dress and had no idea what was yet vertually every one of the girls recognized it right away. "What is it?" I asked. They literally could not believe I didn't recognize the dress. "It's Hermione's dress from the Yule Ball!" they said. "oh yeah... right..."

One thing we all agreed we wanted to do right away was The Forbidden Journey of Harry Potter (FJoHP). The posted wait was 60 minutes, but from what I'd been hearing I wasn't really expecting it to get much better so we hopped in line. Right at the queue entrance they have ride chairs you can try on for size as heavier riders have a hard time with the seats on this attraction. I understand that, since then, they have altered some of the seats to be more accommodating. I joked with the Universal Team member that I should try it out and they actually said I could - almost suggesting it - which gave me pause. Am I too big for this ride? Now, I could lose a few pounds but I honestly did not think I was in danger of not fitting! So I tried. No problem.


The queue area for FJoHP is one of the best I've seen. It takes you through several different sectins of Hogwarts - such as greenhouse for Herbology. Now, here is where I have one of my only gripes about the park (and I have not heard this anywhere else). As you are in the section of the queue before you enter the greenhouse, as you look up at hogwarts you see... cinderblocks. Painted cinderblocks, but cinderblocks nonetheless. Couldn't they have at leaste decorated it with stonework or vines? Something? If this had been the Studios I would not have minded - part of the charm of that park is that you can see the "backstage" Hey, even if this had been a part of the building you could only see from another part of the park I would have not been so critical, but you could see this right from the queue area. And the fact that the queue was so beautifully themed only made it stand out all the more for me.

And the other...

Once you enter the building you get told more of the story. I don't recall the details but I seem to recall it involved Ron urging us to skip class for a bit of fun while Hermione argues against it. And some dire warnings from teachers as I recall. We finally started approaching the loading area for the ride vehicles. Two things I noticed. First, while loading the staff would say "How many wizards in your party?" so long as somebody was wearing some sort of HP parphenalia - even just a scarf. If not they said "How many muggles in your party?". Nice touch. Second, there was a man and his daughter ahead of us who could not ride beacuse the girl was too small. I felt bad but - c'mon - check before you wait in line for an hour! (acutally the wait was closer to 45 minutes). And finally it was our turn to board!


So here's a quick description of the ride. The ride vehicle is called "Kumba". FJoHP is the first ride to use the technology. I heard that Disney was looking at it for something (don't recall what) but ended up not using it. Basically the ride vehicle is a row of chairs with shoulder harnesses - much like in an inverted coaster. Thhese chairs are on the end of a large hydrolic arm. The arm is then attached to a mechanism which rides along a track. Each of these vehicles has multiple arms with the ride vehicles (four in the case of FJ I believe). What this allows for is that, while the mechanism is moving along the track each of the ride vehicles can move independently - up down sideways... even upside-down. This would allow for, as an example, a ride experience where each vehicle has a different level of thrill. (Apparently this is something Disney was looking into). In the case of FJ your vehicle is thrust into different scenes. Some, like a scene with "Dementors", involve physical effects while with others, like a scene with a dragon, involve filmed scenes. In the filmed scenes you are thrust into what is essentially a small Omnimax domed screen which creates a totally emersive experience.


I've heard that a lot of folks find FJoHP to be a bit rough. And I can understand that. But, it is still a terrific ride IMO that uses a new technology to very good effect. A winner in my book.

After FJoHP we did a little shopping. Another criticism of Universal is that they totally missed the mark with WWoHP in terms of how popular the park would be. No argument from me on that. For instance, the main gift shop is Dervish and Banges (D&B) - and there was a line to get in! A line! To get in to the gift shop! And as for Olivander's - the queue there was listed at 2 hours. No way! You could get into the wand store from D&B, skipping the show of course. It would be fun to do the show but there's no way I'm waiting that long. Besides, the HP purist in me is appalled because Olivander's is in Diagon Alley, not Hogsmeade. But I digress...



Well, we finally got into D&B and did a little shopping. Chocolate Frogs were in order, as well as Bertie Botts Everyflavor Beans. And Charlotte chose to get a scarf (Ravenclaw, the house she identifies with). After a bit of shopping we decided to call it a night. We had one more day at UO planned for our trip so we would be coming back.


We decided to have dinner at Margaritaville in Citywalk. We got there about 7:15 and there was about a 30 minute wait. Our meal with tip was $102 - not bad for a party of 5. Of course I was the only one drinking - margarita's natuarally. Another reason for hiring a car - Suresh was my designated driver! On the way home we had another nice conversation with Suresh and the girls went on about what a great time we had. Then it was back to DBV for a little relaxation before bed.

Orlando August 2010 Part 4

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Day 4 - August 18 - Magic Kingdom, Disney Hollywood Studios and Downtown Disney




Once again, as much as I do love my walks from DBV to DHS, Epcot and back, I just could not bring myself to do it. Too darn hot...


This day the plan was for MK in the morning and DHS in the evening. We got up pretty early, had breakfast in the room and were at MK by 9:30. We opted to take the bus.

Doesn't she look excited?

As I wrote earlier, it was quite hot and, as Gabby had enjoyed JP so much the day before we decided a FP for Splash Mountain (SplM) was in order. Once we got there the posted wait was only 5 minutes so we got our FPs (10:20) and went ahead and rode. It was essentially a walk-on and, as expected, Gabby loved it despite having been afraid of the idea of a flume ride. Right next door is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (BTMRR) so we decided to check it out. The posted wait time was 20 minutes but the actual wait was more like 5. After that we went on a morning attraction tear - Haunted Mansion (10 minutes posted, walk on), Jungle Cruise (15 posted, 8 actual) and Pirates of the Caribbean (10 posted, walk on). We then rode SplMt using our FPs. While we were on this "ride tear" I commented that I was surprised that they had stuck with me all this time. As I mentioned earlier I had given them permission to head off on their own if they like. "Are you kidding?" Marie said, "Without you we'd have no idea what to do. You know what you're doing!" Needless to say that made me smile... Anyway, we then headed over to Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain (SpMt) and discovered that the return time for FP was about the same as the estimated wait time (not uncommon), so we got FPs, killed time by riding Tomorrowland Transit Authority and hanging out in Tomorrowland. It was then that Nat and Marie showed their true colors. They had been admiring the princess costumes for sale throughout the world the entire time we were there, and even made pains to point out that they "really could fit into the largest size costumes". (They probably could - they're both pretty small.) But it was seeing the little girls walking around MK in their full "Bibidy-Bobidy-Bootique" finery that really sent them over the edge. Some 6-year old with full on Cinderella costume hair and makeup would walk by and they would say "look at her! She has got it goin' on! She is living the dream!" Anyway, after expressing their full-on envy of some princess loving toddlers we all then went back to ride SpMt.


By this time it was getting very hot so we left Mk and headed back to the hotel for lunch, naps, pool time and, in the case of Charlotte and Gabby, an obligatory viewing of "The Goofy Movie" (leaning tower of cheez-a!). I also did some laundry - gotta love staying at DVC!


We finally decided to leave the room about 7. We took the boat to DHS and found the park to be quite crowded. We headed down Sunset Blvd to see what the lines were like for TZToT and RnRC but they were both too crowded plus the FPs were sold out. So it was decided a little shopping was in order! We went to the Art of Animation where the girls bought some really cool posters. Everyone really wanted to do RnRC and TZToT so we tried again. The waits were still long but we decided to go for it. Good thing, too as the posted time for TZTot was 50 minutes while the actual wait was about 20. I actually find this to often be true of TZToT more than most attractions - the posted wait times are often very exaggerated. After our ride, as usual we stopped by "Picture if you will..." to view our picture. As we were looking at it Marie said "Look at Mr. Thompson and look at us. We're all screaming hysterically and he just has a pleasant smile". This became our new catch-phrase to indicate a wildly good time - having a "pleasant smile". In fact, when we went next door to ride RnRC (40 posted wait time, actually 30) Gabby said "When it goes to take our picture don't scream. Let's all just try to have a pleasant smile!" They actually made that a challenge for the rest of the trip - on any thrill ride, when the time comes to take the picture, maintain a "pleasant smile".




Are we at Downtown Disney yet?

OK, now came my one big mess-up trip planning wise for this trip. One thing Charlotte was dying to do was to eat at "T-Rex" in Downtown Disney (DD). The plan was to eat there this night. We left DHS and caught a bus the Caribbean Beach resort, arriving about 9:40. We then had a bit of a wait for the DD bus which arrived at 10:05. What I didn't realize was that most of the DD stores and restaurants - including T-Rex - close at 10. So, by the time we go there they were closed. This was exacerbated by the fact that it had started to rain. Well, we did manage to find the one restaurant that was still open - Planet Hollywood. By the time we got in and got seated it was after 11 and we were all pretty hungry. Our meal was $94 with tip. We left Planet Hollywood about 12:30, caught the bus back to DBV and immediately went to bed.

Orlando August 2010 Part 5

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Day 5 - August 19 - Universal Orlando

What with the late night we had the night before, once again we decided to relax in the morning before our second trip to UO. We hung out, went to the pool, relaxed, ate a late breakfast/early lunch, the usual. And I'm sure there was probably a viewing of "The Goofy Movie" in there as well. We had arranged for the car service to pick us up at 1:00. As we were walking to the front of the hotel the girls were saying "Wouldn't it be cool if our driver was Suresh again?" Well, we got to the pick up area and out of the van comes SURESH! He was greeted like an old member of the family. On the way over the girls regaled him with stories of our adventures - everyone had a good time. Suresh dropped us off and we agreed to meet up that night at 9:30.


As before we went to Universal Studios first. Again, first on our agenda was The Mummy. The posted wait time was 30 minutes but we decided to do the single rider line which had a 10 minute wait. While in the single rider line Charlotte and Gabby chatted with a little girl (about 10 I'd say) with a British accent who went on and on about how this was her favorite ride and that she had already been on it 14 times. It was funny because she ended up riding with me and Charlotte and, 14th time or not, she was screaming and jumping at all the right times. After The Mummy we went to Disaster!, which we had missed before. The posted wait time was a manageable 30 minutes although it ended up being closer to 40. We then decided on something cool and calm - E.T. Now, the first time I rode E.T. was at Universal in California and I thought it was one of the lamest things I had ever been on. Years later, when I went to UO with my friend Kirk, I agree to ride again because it's an attraction Kirk really enjoys. And I have to say that I've changed my mind and I quite like it now. It's really just the ending that is bad - sort of like "It's a Small World" on LSD. In fact I'd say that the E.T queue area is right up there with the best of them. After E.T. I tried to convince the girls to check out JAWS but nobody was interested, so we left the Studios and headed to IoA.

Wizarding World of Harry Potter

We had some stuff we wanted to store, plus the girls were planning to do some shopping, so we rented a locker in IoA. As we walked through Jurassic Park on our way to WWoHP we stopped and bought Ice Cream at a stand. Once we got into WWoHP, as we were now all (including Gabby) roller-coaster fans we decided to check out Dragon's Challenge (DC). DC is made from a previously existing coaster called "Dueling Dragons" that has been re-themed for WWoHP. And I have to say that the theme-ing - in particular the queue which is themed after the Triwizard Tournament from "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" - is very impressive. The wait was 10 minutes and we got in the second row of our dragon. I've always said that this is a coaster where you really want to sit in the front if you can, however I hear that it is no longer timed so that both coasters hit the outer loop at the same time. I guess there was an incident with this feature. It's too bad as it was something that really made this coaster unique. While I'd still recommend the front I would say it doesn't matter as much as it used to.


We then went shopping at Dervish and Banges and exchanged the scarf Charlotte had bought on our previous trip. As I mentioned she got a Ravenclaw scarf. While she still identifies with that house she decided to exchange it for Gryffindor because the colors are more recognizable as making it a Harry Potter scarf. (editor's note - Charlotte was later sorted into Ravenclaw in Pottermore, making her wish she had kept the first scarf.) Also I should note that we had lost the receipt but the folks at IoA were kind enough to do the exchange anyway.


The original plan had been to have dinner in Citywalk but we were all hungry so we decided to eat in the park. Now, I don't have a high level of trust when it comes to theme park sit-down restaurants. I've found a few that I like at WDW (in particular in Epcot World Showcase and DHS), but outside of that I avoid them. I had heard good things about Mythos however, and they had a big banner announcing that they were voted "Best Theme Park Restaurant" (by who they did not say), so we decided to give it a whirl. And I have to say - this was a very nice experience. The decor was very nice (although I must admit I was not sure what the theme was supposed to be) and the food was surprisingly good. If you're in the park and want a sit-down meal Mythos is a very good choice. The total was $74 with tip. I feel obligated to note something here. The astute reader may have noticed how small our sit-down meal bills tended to be. This is really due to 3 things. First, obviously, most members of the party were not old enough to drink (and at Mythos I didn't have anything either). Second, Natalie and Charlotte are both vegetarians and veggie choices are usually inexpensive. Finally, the biggest factor, I think, was that the party consisted mostly of girls. If this had been a party with 4 teenage boys I have no doubt that the meals would have been considerably more expensive.


After dinner we headed over for an encore ride on FJoHP. The line was quite long so we did the single rider option. Since Universal does not have FP unless you are staying in one of their resorts, the single rider option is a good choice. I avoid it if it was my first time on a ride with a particular group but as we'd already ridden it seemed like a good idea. As it turned out the wait in the single rider line was 30 minutes despite being told it would be 15-20 minutes. I actually think the regular line was about the same. This is a risk you take with single rider - it can be hit or miss. That said, I have had very good luck with single rider on Test Track and on our first trip to IoA I was able to ride Hulk several times using the single rider line.


After that we left WWoHP for the last time. I convinced the girls to ride Spider-man (SM) on the way out. I just can't imagine a trip to IoA without riding SM - it is, hands down one of the coolest rides ever. (editor's notes - first, I've heard that SM has been re-vamped and is even better. I can't wait to ride again! Second - Kirk and I are going to Busch Gardens Williamsburg where they have a ride called "Dark Castle" which I understand is uses similar technology to SM. I can't wait to check it out). Well, that was the end of the UO portion of our trip. While the Studios is fun, IoA is simply a top-notch park and I love going there. The rumored expansion to the Harry Potter area will make it even more awesome. I can't wait to experience that.

SURESH!

We were actually a bit early for meeting Suresh but he was already there waiting for us (good ol' Suresh!) After driving us back to our hotel the girls insisted on posing for a picture with our new buddy. It was a bit dark unfortunately but everyone is smiling!


The girls went to the room to relax, but it was still pretty early so I decided to have a drink on the Boardwalk. I was in the mood for a margarita so I went to ESPN Zone and ordered one. I sat on the Boardwalk for a while, watching the lights on the water, the boats coming and going and folks strolling along. Man I love this place. DVC always says "Welcome Home" and the Boardwalk is the one place, other than my real home, where I really feel "at home". Welcome Home indeed.

Orlando August 2010 Part 6

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Day 6 - August 20 - Animal Kingdom


Our plan for the day was to go to Disney's Animal Kingdom (DAK) in the morning and MK later in the afternoon/evening. DAK is a park where I think it is particularly important to get there early as it is best so see animals eraly in the day since that's when they are most active. We got up, had breakfast and caught a 9:00 bus which arrived right away. We arrived at the park a little after 9:00 and immediately went to Asia to get FPs for Expadition Everest (EE). After that we went on Kilimanjaro Safari and Pagnani Exploration Trail. We followed that up with a ride on EE using our FPs and picking up more FPs, Dinosaur and EE again (once again using FPs). We decided to duck out of the heat with lunch at Rainforest Cafe, followed by It's Tough to be a Bug and finally a ride on Kali River Rapids.

We then headed back to our room. After doing a bit of shopping at The Boardwalk we spent the rest of the evening relaxing as all of the girls expressed more interest in watching movies in the room than any more park-going. This brings to mind something - this trip was originally scheduled for 7 days but a scheduling conflict brought us down to 6 days. If we had been able to do 7 I would have scheduled a "down day". This day sort of ended up being half of a "down day". So, it was a bit of a short day, but still fun and relaxing.

Disney World Middle School Trip - May 2010 - Intro

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Both of my kids participated in an after school activity at the middle school they both attended called "Rock Ensemble". Organized by 2 young music teachers at the school - Matt and Mike - kids in the rock ensemble learned to play guitar, electric bass, drums keyboards and at times more eclectic instruments such as the "keytar". For that last few years Matt and Mike (both big WDW fans) have organized trips to Walt Disney World (WDW) for the eighth-graders in the group. They spend a few days enjoying the park and are given the opportunity to perform as well. (The first time they did this was the year after Nat - the older of my 2 daughters - left middle school - much to her chagrin.)


As an eighth grader and member of the rock ensemble Charlotte got the chance to go in May 2011. I was thrilled when Charlotte asked me to chaperon. That's right... my 13 year-old eighth grader actually asked me to chaperon her trip to Disney World. And some of her friends were party to this decision. When I asked her why she wanted me to chaperon she told me she had been talking up to her friends what a "Disney Pro" I am and that they would have a lot more fun and be able to do a lot more stuff with my help. I was flattered (and a bit intimidated to be honest...)


Travel: The travel day made it clear just how well organized Matt and Mike were for this trip. I'm sure many of you have dealt with the trials of traveling with kid - imagine traveling with about 35 teen-agers, a dozen chaperons and a mas of drums, guitars and all the other luggage. This was an amazingly well organized trip. All the chaperons met beforehand to get our packages which included flight info, "Mickey's Magical Express" tickets,  trip itinerary and a packet for a "scavenger hunt" (more on that later). Also Matt (I had the sense that Matt was the main organizer) set up a group text application so he could send out one text that would go to all the chaperons. Very handy.


We got to the Middle School on Tuesday morning, got organized and packed everything away and boarded buses to Newark Airport. Our flight left at 3:45 and we arrived in Orlando about 6:30. We made our way to the All Star Music and had dinner at the hotel's food court. The trip, as well as their performance, was arranged as part of Disney's "Ears for the Arts" program. As part of that program we got food vouchers which we could use at various counter service restaurants throughout the property, so we used vouchers for dinner. After dinner the kids had some study time and we all turned in.

Disney World Middle School Trip - May 2010 - Day 1

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As this was a school trip there were a few sort of interesting restrictions on what we could and could not do. To begin with, we all had to be in the same general area as at least one of the official school reps (being Matt or Mike). What that meant was that we all had to go to the same place at the same time. If, say, someone wanted to leave the park we were visiting in the middle of the day to go to the pool, either Matt or Mike would have to go back to the hotel as well. Also, us chaperons were told in no uncertain terms that we needed to stay with our charges at all times

Charlotte, Michelle and Zoe

So, we all met up to catch the bus at the All Star bus stop. One thing to note - and I wish I had taken a picture, was that Matt's wife Jessica and their one year-old son Parker came along for the trip. They had dressed Parker in a Disney Animal Kingdom outfit (our destination for the morning) including a safari outfit and hate. Very cute. Matt's parents also came along - very nice folks. Anyway, my charges were my daughter Charlotte and her friends Michelle and Zoe.

I mentioned earlier that we were to go on a "scavenger hunt". Basically the idea was that Matt and Mike set up a bunch of activities - most of them music related - for the kids to participate in. You would get points for each activity with chances for extra points. As an example you might get a number of points for seeing a show and extra points for participating. The team with the most points would win an iTunes gift certificate for each member  as well as the chance to choose any song to sing or play in any song of their choosing at the year-end concert. It was the chance to perform any song of their choosing that motivated my group, They were determined to win. And they thought that I was their "ringer" - that my knowledge of the parks would make us a cinch to win. I was flattered, but I also tried to mange their expectations.

The first park on our agenda was Disney's Animal Kingdom (DAK). Matt and Mike had arranged for a group breakfast at the Rainforest Cafe (RFC) to start our first day. It was quite fun with a large breakfast buffet and the food was actually pretty good. After leaving RFC we all went to Guest Services to get out park-hopper passes. After we got our passes I took my group to the entry gate and... our tickets were rejected. Looking at the passes the reason was clear - they were not valid until the next day. We all went back to Guest Services and the error was rectified in about 10 or 15 minutes (not bad considering we your talking about a party of about 40) and we were still in the park by about 8:45. This turned out to be the on and only organization glitch of the trip, which as I wrote earlier was very well organized.

Now, my experience going to WDW has lead to my developing some fairly loose touring plans for each park. In particular I have a plan I use when first arriving at any park. My approach is to get as many Fastpasses (FP) and experience as many of the most popular attractions as possible in the morning while the lines are shorter. At AK it's a bit different because one of the first attractions that should be experienced is Kilimanjaro Safari (KS) because the animals are most active in the morning, yet KS is not an attraction that usually justifies a FP. So, my usual approach is to go straight to Expedition Everest (EE) and get a FP for that, ride EE if lines are short then head straight to KS. This didn't quite work for us this morning.

Animal Kingdom parade

First, as I mentioned, we got into the park a bit late (45 minutes after opening). Second, as I mentioned, the girls really wanted to win the scavenger hunt (I'm going to use the abbreviation SH from now on) and one of the items on the SH was Mickey's Jammin' Jungle parade which was going on when we first got there. The requirements of the SH were such that you had to provide photos proving you participated so I took a (fairly lame) photo of the parade. Later I realized I forgot to make sure the girls were in the picture as well - I would not make that mistake again.


We got to EE at about 9:15. We got our FPs (9:55) and as the line was short we rode it right away. Zoe and Michelle had never ridden EE and they both loved it. After riding I tried to convince the girls to go straight to KS but they weren't all that interested - they wanted to ride EE again. Well, I could not argue with that logic so we rode a second time getting on at about 9:30.


We then went to KS but the line was 30 minutes which we thought was too long and we could not get another FP yet so instead we walked through the Pangani Exploration Trail (PET) instead. I really enjoy this as well as AKs other main walking trail the Maharajah Jungle Trek in the Asia section. Upon exiting PET we got FPs for KS.

Zoe, Michelle and Charlotte

Another item on the SH was the Nemo show in the "Theater in the Wild" in Dinoland. There was a 10:30 show the girls wanted to catch so we started toward Dinoland - sort of. I messed up and took us to Camp Minnie Mickey instead. Ooops. A bit embarrassing considering I'm supposed to be the expert. Well, we still made it to the theater in time for a show. The girls got credit for going to the theater and extra credit for seeing the show.


After the show we rode Dinosaur with a 10 minute wait. We then headed back to Asia in hopes of getting a FP for Kali River Rapids (KRR) but the FP machines were shut down. So instead we headed to KS and used our FPs. Even though the girls expressed limited interest in riding KS they ended up enjoying it quite a bit. We then headed to Kali River Rapids. The line was not too long so we rode. As usual, I got soaked. Good thing it was a hot day. So hot in fact that we headed to the Tree of Life so that we could enjoy the air-conditioning of "It's Tough to be a Bug".

Another SH item was "Festival of the Lion King. We saw the 2:30 show (I highly recommend this show, BTW) so the girls got credit for seeing it. Try as we may they did not get picked to join in the show which would have gotten them even more credit. We were supposed to be at the Magic Kingdom no later than 4:00 which meant we had no time to use our FPs for EE. A bummer but then we did get to ride it twice in the morning. On our way out we saw a steel drum band and the girls joined in with them. They were not on the official SH list but I knew that all of the SH activities (save one) were focused around music so I took a picture of the girls with the musicians hoping it could be an extra credit tie breaker. We left AK having done every item on the SH that we could have done (The World Drumming Experience was not happening that day so far as we could tell and). We left the park and hopped a bus to the Magic Kingdom (MK).




Admiring our "brick"



We arrived at MK at 3:50. First thing on the agenda was to visit the Thompson Family Brick in the entrance plaza to MK. Every time we make a trip to WDW I am afraid we'll find our brick is gone - and every time I am pleasantly surprised that it is still there. A bit warn and harder to read, but there in it's great spot a few feet over from one of the trees in the entrance plaza.

We immediately went to Adventureland for Dole Whips. I can tell you that Matt and Mike must also be Dole Whip fans - because having a Dole Whip was the only non-music task on the SH.  (Why do I keep hearing Stooie Griffin saying "Dole wHip") I should note here that the one of the absolutely required duties of the chaperons was to never leave their charges alone. Well, this was the one and only time I failed in that regard - and I felt awful about it. The Dole Whip line was pretty long and I wanted to get Splash Mountain (SplM) FPs, so I let the girls wait in line while I got the FPs. And of course when I was in the SplM FP who else was there but Matt. I didn't want to get busted so I sort of slunk away. I don't know if Matt saw me, he didn't say anything. Funny thing, talking to other chaperons later I learned that there were a few who pretty much abandoned their charges altogether. One guy, rumor has it, even left his kids to hang out in the pub in the England pavilion when we were in Epcot. So... I didn't feel so bad.

We headed over to Space Mountain (SpM). There we met up with Matt and his group. They all had FPs and we didn't, but the line was only 20 minutes so we all went for it. We then went to Fantasyland to do Mickey's Philharmagic (another SH attraction). I have to say, I really enjoy Philharmagic. By now our SplM FP time was up (4:50) so we stayed with Matt's group and headed there. On the way the girls harmonized to "Sister Christian" by Night Ranger - one of the songs they were going to do in the concert. I thought that was pretty cool.

From there we headed to to SplM but we were sidetracked by the fact that Haunted Mansion (HM) was a walk-on so we decided to do that. Good thing to - we had heard about the new queue area and that if you use the left side going in you will go through the new stuff. Very cool! We really enjoyed taking our time and enjoying all the new stuff .

After that we went over to SplM and... it was closed. Bummer. Instead we headed to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (BTMRR) which had a 30 minute wait (not unusual when SplM is down). Once again we met up with Matt and his crew. The posted 30 minute wait ended up only being 14 minutes. After BTMRR we were all hungry so we went to Columbia Harbor House for a snack (one of the best counter service places in MK IMO). There we met up with a bunch of others included Matt's parents, wife and son.

After eating we decided to go on SpM again. We got there and... it was closed. Batting 1000 with those mountains! Anyway, by then a bunch of people had headed back to the hotel to go swimming and my crew thought that sounded awesome to we headed back to All Star Music. We still had a bunch of stuff on the SH, but we would be coming back to MK later. Back at the hotel the girls went swimming, we had supper in the food court and then the girls settled in for homework and bed (this was a school trip after all). After the girls were settled in a bunch of the chaperon went to the bar to hang out and relax for a bit. All in all a very fun day.