Trip Report from July 19-24, 2009

emnbensdad · Post by **emnbensdad** » Aug Sun 23, 2009 8:11 pm

So it's only taken a month to finally get to my trip report. I've probably left out some details. I can't find the papers I wrote on during our trip but I think I've covered most of the details.

I'll probably break this into a few reports of each of the days just to keep the posts from getting too long.

Enjoy!!!

Saturday July 18

We left the Atlanta area around 7:30. We had packed most items Friday night so we could get an early start. Fortunately we're not far from I-75 so we don't have long until we really feel like we're on our way. We drove to my in-laws in central Florida for a short Saturday night visit. The trip down was uneventful. One minor wreck in south Georgia had the highway shut down for a bit. The delay was about 30 minutes. Still the 500 mile trip took about 9 hours.

Sunday July 19

We left for WDW around 2:00 Sunday afternoon. It was a little overcast and started to rain as we got closer. We pulled into the Contemporary Resort about 3:30. The check-in process was smooth as always. We were meeting our neighbors there. Our kids and their kids had no idea that we were going to be there at the same time. So, while our rooms were in the Garden Wing, our neighbors got a room in the tower. I led us to our neighbor's room and inserted my key which didn't work. I heard noises coming from the room and I asked my kids to check and see who was in "our" room. They knocked and their friends opened the door completely surprised!! It was a cool moment.

We chatted and then headed to our room, called for our luggage and got settled. We were getting hungry and I suggested a trip to Downtown Disney so we wouldn't burn a park day on our passes. We hopped on the Monorail and headed to the TTC thinking we could pick up a bus here. We were advised to walk over to the Polynesian and get a bus there directly to DD. We just missed one but finally got a bus after about a 20 minute wait in the rain. We were under a covered bus stop so it wasn't bad.

We made it to DD and it was raining a little harder. A lot of people were leaving. We don't mind the rain too much so we tend to go out when others are avoiding it. However, because of the time of day, people were heading to restaurants and we had not made an ADR's for Sunday night. Not the best plan I've come up with. We headed to on of the first restaurants we saw . . . Rainforest Cafe. I know some don't care for it . . too noisy, overpriced, slow service. Well, we headed to the back patio and got seated immediately. The wait up front was 2 hours. We got our drink order placed, got our drinks, placed our food order and then we waited. It was nearly 30 minutes before our food arrived. It was tasty, prepared just right . . . it just took too long.

We then headed out to the Lego store which was my 9-year-old's destination for the night. He had already decided the item he wanted. The Emerald Night. You can look it up or if you are my FB friend, I posted a picture of the finished product. It took me a little over 4 hours last Thursday night. For those interested, it's product #10194 on Lego's site.

After winding our way out of the Lego store, we headed back to the bus area and made our way home to get some good rest before hitting Epcot on Monday.

More to come later.

Soarin08 · Post by **Soarin08** » Aug Sun 23, 2009 8:32 pm

Nice start!! I look forward to reading more!

emnbensdad · Post by **emnbensdad** » Aug Sun 23, 2009 9:19 pm

Monday - July 20

We arrived at Epcot around 8:40. It was overcast and drizzly. You could still see some of the workers in the front flower bed doing some last minute cleaning and pruning. This is the first time I've ever noticed it prior to a park opening. Since it was a little drizzly but not raining hard we decided to forego the ponchos and just head to some of the rides and get fast passes. We went straight to Soarin' and got our fast passes. We then headed over to Test Track and walked on with a 10 minute wait. We had to wait a while to get our next Fast Pass. My son was a little nervous about Test Track. I assured him he would be fine in a few hours. He punched me after we got off saying it was the best ride ever!!! I told him just wait.

While we were on TT my DW and DD went and got started on the Kim Possible journey. They made a few stops and we met back up with them in time to head back over to Soarin'. My 5-year-old DD was very nervous about it. She really didn't know what to expect since most of her experience with rides consisted of Dumbo, IASWA and the Magic Kingdom RR. She goes more for the character greetings and shows rather than the rides. But she loved Soarin' as did all of us. What a fantastic ride. I will say she white-knuckled the arm rest in between our seats but relaxed a little by the end. We were on the third row so we were the lowest.

We got out of Soarin' and I believe we headed back to Test Track to use our Fast Passes. We sat up front on the second trip and my son loved it even more. The day was definitely getting better.

We met up with the rest of the family and headed over to World Showcase after stopping by the character greeting area. The kids were getting bored by the time we made it over to world showcase. We caught the improv group at the UK Pavilion and A Chair Act in front of Chefs de France. We got some gelato in Italy and made our way to the American Pavilion to watch my friend Myron sing with the Voices of Liberty before heading into the theater to watch the American Adventure presentation. It always gets to me with the music and the audio-animatronics are great in this show. My son was even wiping his eyes by the end of the presentation. I knew this would further support his fascination with American history.

We headed back to Soarin for an afternoon ride. We had obtained Fast Passes again for Soarin' before they ran out. We had just enough time to ride again (first row this time!!!) and get a boat ride back to the opposite side of World Showcase for our reservations at Germany's Biergarten for dinner. A college friend is in the band that performs here but had other duties today and we missed seeing him. There is a video of his performance on YouTube. Good dinner shared with a family from Mississippi at our table.

We were beat so we headed back to the Contemporary and hit the pool.

Tuesday - Blizzard Beach!

boilerbabe · Post by **boilerbabe** » Aug Sun 23, 2009 11:18 pm

Great report so far, can't wait to read the rest!!!

Post by **Len90** » Aug Sun 23, 2009 11:52 pm

It's about time you got a trip report together!

It seems like yesterday you were sending me text message updates of where you were and what you were up to. I am happy to see you guys had a blast there and can't wait to see the rest of this report.

emnbensdad · Post by **emnbensdad** » Aug Mon 24, 2009 7:45 am

Ah yes. . . I forgot to add that I started sending text messages to Len sharing the "magic" as it happened. He was also good for some tips too. I still have most of the messages on my phone. I don't want to delete them yet. It's admission that the trip is over.

Future Guy · Post by **Future Guy** » Aug Mon 24, 2009 8:17 am

Thanks for the report! I'm glad your kids enjoyed EPCOT. Isn't the UK improv group great? I got roped into playing Lancelot in their King Arthur routine the last time I was there, it was great fun! Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip!

Post by **horizons1** » Aug Mon 24, 2009 12:35 pm

Ok, wait, where did you eat lunch? I love the detail, but you had to have something besides gelato before dinner in Germany!

emnbensdad · Post by **emnbensdad** » Aug Mon 24, 2009 1:11 pm

We didn't eat an official lunch. We shared a basket of fish and chips in UK. Plus, we had a big breakfast in our room at the CR. We usually bring our own breakfast stuff (protein bars, pastries and cereal for the kids) to save some money unless we have a character meal.

I knew I would leave out some details. Sorry about that.

Post by **Len90** » Aug Mon 24, 2009 7:04 pm

emnbensdad wrote:Ah yes. . . I forgot to add that I started sending text messages to Len sharing the "magic" as it happened. He was also good for some tips too. I still have most of the messages on my phone. I don't want to delete them yet. It's admission that the trip is over.

I actually just checked my phone and I have all the text's too! I also still carry my room key in my wallet; which will remain there until the night before we go back. I just can't seem to get over the fact that I'm not there anymore after 6 weeks. Glad I was able to help you out!

Also, where is the rest of the week

emnbensdad · Post by **emnbensdad** » Aug Sat 29, 2009 8:44 am

Patience young Jedi. It's coming. Just finding time in between life's happenings to sit down and write it all out.