Disney World in 2012

[elizabethswann]

Whew boy. After that long trip, I'm already wanting to go back. Let me try this trip report out.

My best friend, Amber, and I spent ten days at WDW from Jan. 24 to Feb. 3 and we are already planning out our return trip. But we'll figure that all out later. We did the Magic Your Way package, spent 8 days at the parks, did the Disney Dining Plan (which saved us a huge amount of money) and got a free refillable resort mug that's on my bookcase now. She came in from Texas while I came in from California and this trip was forever in the making. We got a great deal from a travel agent from Mouse Fan Travel and I know we will definitely go through him again for the next trip.

I flew out of LAX Jan. 24 and arrived at Orlando International close to 5pm though Amber's flight was delayed so I waited an extra 10/15 minutes for her. I have to say that Orlando International is a really nice airport, not as congested as LAX is but spacious and neat. The shuttle was pretty great from getting to the terminals to the main terminal. Once we met up, we were off to the Disney's Magical Express bus then were off to the Caribbean Beach Resort. I was checking in almost everywhere on Facebook because it was fun and I know those of you here I have on Facebook got to enjoy it too. We reached the custom house by about six and were put into the Jamaica village. Insert groans for exhausting walk but thankfully we got onto the internal resort shuttle to go all the way to it. We got to see the other villages, where the Old Port Royale building was, and the bus stop for where we'd have to go to travel to the parks. We had Jamaica 41 (another long walk from the bus stop) in room 4128. Good thing it was on the first floor otherwise we would have been overly dramatic over going up the stairs especially with my large carry-on bag we dubbed 'the body bag' that was real heavy. I managed to buy a WDW carry-on suitcase and shoved the other bag into my check in bag. We decided to stay in that day since we were tired from our flight and got the in room pizza delivery for dinner. Real good pizza! I started taking photos of our hotel room because I'm awesome like that and I really got a kick out of our Finding Nemo bed print/wallpaper. Only downside to it was that our room was right next to the road so we'd be hearing the Disney bus going by every ten minutes or so. We didn't mind it. The length of the resort itself was massive but it was very peaceful to walk during the night.

Day One: Magic Kingdom!! We decided to go close to noon since we wanted to sleep in a bit and not have to worry about being so exhausted early on in the day. I was snapping photos all over the place from the time we boarded the bus to leaving the parks. We started in Tomorrowland getting on Stitch's Great Escape, TTA (I love that ride so much), Space Mountain (now I'm amazed by the legendary Star Tunnel and never wanted to leave that section), then had lunch at Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe before going on Splash Mountain twice and going on the WDW Railroad. I think after that we just wandered around for a bit before calling it a day and going back to the hotel.

[elizabethswann]

Day Two: Magic Kingdom pt 2. We went around noon again because we sure killed ourselves the day before. There, we went on Prince Charming's Regal Carousel, Mickey's Philharmagic, Snow White's Scary Adventures, Mad Tea Party, Space Mountain again, TTA, the Haunted Mansion at night, Carousel of Progress, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (I prefer the Astro Blasters better), Country Bears Jamboree for my mom then dined at Tony's Town Square Restaurant. It was Lady & the Tramp themed and I was in heaven. I had the chicken parmesan there and was that good! Then finished the night off with vanilla bean gelato and that was good too. We were going to try and track down Derek (packwingfn) at Pirates but it was closed by the time we go there. We got to meet Tiana and Naveen by Liberty Square. Amber was trying to get all the princesses autographs for her niece's birthday and they were great sports.

Before we went into the park, we took the resort monorail for about two hours or so just to relax, see all the resorts around the Magic Kingdom, and the Transportation & Ticket Center. We got off the second loop at the Polynesian since we had discussed that we will try and make that our next hotel to stay at and we were in complete and total awe of the largeness, the beauty, and how convenient it is that it has both a monorail and ferry boat to take you to the Magic Kingdom with no problem. We walked around the lobby, did some quick shopping at one of the stores for sunglasses (and I got a Polynesian Resort pin), then got back on the monorail to the Transportation & Ticket Center, catching the ferry boat from there to the Magic Kingdom.

Day Three: Disney's Hollywood Studios. We only did one day here because we pretty much saw everything we wanted despite Toy Story Mania being a nightmare to try. We skipped that. That day it was cloudy and misty but not too bad. We did Star Tours, Muppet Vision 3D, the Studio Backlot Tour (which wasn't that great because I'm more in love with the Universal Studios Tour in Hollywood but loved seeing the Flight of the Navigator ship there), walked around the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure, did The Great Movie Ride (loved it), Tower of Terror (so much better than DCA) and I did single rider for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster since Amber's not a big fan of those kinds of roller coasters but she did Space Mountain with me. We ate dinner at 50's Prime Time Cafe and oh my god, I LOVED it. Right as we sat down, one guy got in trouble for putting his elbows on the table so his punishment was to put his forehead against the doorway, say he'd be a good boy three times loud, then got taunted and teased by our waitress with a kazoo. Amber and I were in hysterics. I got Dad's Meatloaf and that was so good to the point where I pretty much cleaned my plate "to where they could see my tongue markings" and got a Clean Platter Club sticker. It was pretty fun. I got the caramel sundae for dessert and couldn't finish it because I ate so much but it was very good. I'm definitely going back there.

We also left a bit early prior to the park closing to go on the ferry boat to go to the Boardwalk. We got to see the Swan & Dolphin hotels and the Yacht and Beach Club hotels before being all in awe over the Boardwalk area. Definitely worth the walk before going back to the hotel. We went night swimming and did some laundry since it was right there at the pool. We had the pool to ourselves for close to an hour which was real nice then packed up our dry clothes and went back to the room.

[elizabethswann]

Day Four: Disney's Animal Kingdom. We also did just one day here since I was more into the rides and seeing the animals rather than seeing the shows. That's just me. We walked all the way around the Oasis and Discovery Island to getting so many photos of the Tree of Life and soaking in all the amazing details that went into the carvings. We got excited seeing kangaroos, otters, lemurs, and other animals. After that we went to Dinoland USA and rode Primeval Whirl before meeting up with Corey (Soarin08) which was a lot of fun to meet her. She stayed with us for the rest of the day until we went to dinner. We went on Dinosaur, Expedition Everest (wish the Yeti worked!), walked all around Asia and Africa despite a parade going on then wrapped up the day going on the Kilimanjaro Safaris. I got happy seeing lions, cheetahs, and giraffes. We bid Corey goodbye for now then went off to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. I swear, I had nothing but pizza, cheesecakes and burgers for most of my trip but I don't care! They were all great. We were just real tired by the time we got to the bus to go back to the hotel.

Day Five: Epcot. Now this was, by far, my favorite park of them all. We spent three days here because we knew we would need it for sure. We also decided to do the traditional Drinkin' Around the World (Showcase) though we didn't get a good start until Day 2. All we did Day 1 was have a Midnight Blue margarita from the Mexico Pavilion. We started out in Future World where we did Spaceship Earth, walked past the Fountains of Nations (and I got happy hearing the song from The Rocketeer) towards the Imagination Pavilion where we saw Captain EO and wandered around the ImageWorks area. We went to The Land next where we got lunch at Sunshine Seasons then went on Living With the Land before we went on Ellen's Energy Adventure then Test Track. We were going to do Soarin' but that was a long wait and we had debated about Mission: Space but we wanted to see World Showcase more. We managed to make it to World Showcase as the sun was going down and we went around Mexico Pavilion, got a drink there, went on the Gran Fiesta Tour before going to the Norway Pavilion. We didn't do much except go on Malestrom before we left since we were getting tired.

Day Six: Epcot. We did a bit more on the second day of Epcot and did a second ride on Test Track since it was about a twenty minute wait before we spent the remainder of the day in World Showcase. We managed to get a reservation to Biergarten thanks to Soarin08 that was towards the evening so we had time to go Drinkin' Around the World. We met Mulan in the China Pavilion and Snow White in the Germany Pavilion and got photos with them. We went to eat at the American Adventure first (so I managed to eat a lot of fries and a nice burger that had pulled pork on top of it) before we started off in Morocco. I had a Habibi Daiquiri though it wasn't my favorite. We went to France and got the Grand Marnier Orange Slush which was my new favorite for sure to the point where I bought another the next day. We also got a photo with Belle, the Beast, and Princess Aurora while we were there in France. We wandered through the UK Pavilion and Canada Pavilion before we went back to the Germany Pavilion, getting a shot of Jager before our reservation. That sure woke me up! Our dinner reservation was at 7:20 and we had a great time there. I managed to get chicken schnitzel, German sausage, cabbage salad, potato dumplings, spaetzle, mac and cheese, marinated pot roast, pretzel rolls and got bavarian cheesecake, strawberries with vanilla sauce and a piece of apple strudel for dessert. We managed to have the band play while we ate and that made the night even better. By the time we finished dinner, we were about fifteen minutes from seeing Illuminations so we decided to stay and watch it. Best decision we made. It was just a pain to leave the park with the huge crowd but we were able to squeeze in on the first bus out to the hotel.

[elizabethswann]

Day Seven: Epcot. This was our final day there and we decided to go around the Epcot Character Spot to get photos with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy then got photos with Chip and Dale. We went around World Showcase again, this time going around to Canada first. We didn't get any drinks there, the American Adventure, or Italy Pavilion so we didn't complete it but we will be prepared next time! We had reservations for the Rose & Crown Pub for dinner so we managed to get photos with Mary Poppins then went to the France Pavilion to see Impressions de France, get a photo with Marie from The Aristocats, then wandered around the Morocco Pavilion. We got photos with Aladdin and Jasmine before we went to the Japan Pavilion where we wandered through the shop then stopped at the sake bar inside. We both shared the Hana Fuga sparkling sake which tasted like a bubbly peach and we got to keep our cups! They had our names written in Japanese. We were on a little bit of a time crunch leading to our reservation so we sped our way to the China Pavilion where we got Peach Snap! (and that was very good) then off to the Norway Pavilion for the Linie Aquavit Glacier shot (and that was strong but all right). We managed to make it to our dinner reservation though we waited a bit to be seated so we walked around the UK Pavilion, heard the British Revolution while I shopped, then sat out by the lagoon for dinner. My drink at the UK Pavilion was the English Rose which was fruity and came with a souvenir glass. We managed to leave Epcot before Illuminations to beat the crowd and did a little quick shopping in between before going to the hotel.

Day Eight: Magic Kingdom. This was our last day here and we were trying to do everything we didn't do. We did Peter Pan's Flight, Space Mountain and TTA again then ate at Cosmic Ray's Cafe for lunch, did Haunted Mansion so I can get photos of it in the day time and went on Pirates of the Caribbean twice where I finally got to see packwingfn for a brief moment. At least we got to say hi! Before that, we got to meet Ariel and Eric then went on Pirates. We mostly just shopped and got a few last minute photos before we left. We didn't do a whole lot there but we just had a good time regardless.

Day Nine: Downtown Disney. This was our dedicated shopping day. We also did an open house for the Disney's Vacation Club where we were really starting to consider trying it out. Money's just tight for all of us since my grandparents have been helping to pay for our bills with my mom going through chemo for her breast cancer but I know it's something I want to try out soon. Our host knew where I lived since his parents live there so it was nice to actually hear someone say they knew my city! We were mostly in it for the ice cream and $15 gift card but we did give it some thought as to trying it out in the future. We spent at least a half hour or so in the World of Disney where we got some last minute shopping for our family and friends, got some pins at the Pin Traders, walked through the Marketplace and Pleasure Island before we got dinner at Planet Hollywood. We would have gone to West Side if we weren't so tired by the end of the evening so we took the water taxi from Pleasure Island to the Marketplace and got the next bus that came right away. We spent the remainder of the evening packing up everything and hardly got any sleep because we were too busy making each other laugh so hard to the point where it hurt.

The next day was our day to fly home. We didn't want to leave but we promised each other we'd be back soon. Our bus ride on the Magical Express was scheduled to pick us up at 10am so we checked out before that and waited in the lobby until we had to go. Once we were at the airport, we just had a late breakfast/early lunch at Chick-Fil-A then bid our goodbyes to each other. My flight was at 1pm and hers was at 1:30 so we were trying to spend every last minute before we left. It was difficult to leave each other but we were very happy we had this trip together. We can't wait until next time!

[Soarin08]

Nice recap, dearie! I was so glad to get to finally meet you and meet Amber as well, and I'm glad you enjoyed the Biergarten and Rose and Crown in particular. I must try that drink you had in the UK, it sounds really good!! I like the grand marnier slush too but the grey goose citron one is my favourite.... YUMMY!!

[Amy]

It sounds like you had a great time! That was nice that your flights were so close to one another and you got to spend a lot of time with your friend
Is Buzz at DL that much different than WDW? I can't remember
The Backlot Tour used to be better ~ it is much shorter and less to it now that Lights, Motors, Action opened. It never was as involved as Universal's tour though.
Will you be including any pictures with your report?

[elizabethswann]

Soarin08, it was amazing getting to meet you even and spend a bit of the day with you! I have to really thank you for helping us out throughout the rest of the trip and I'll definitely ask you for any additional help for when we plan for our return trip. It'll probably be within a few years but I know it will be after Fantasyland's expansion is done.

Amy, I personally think Buzz at DLR is different because I prefer the gun they use in DLR than WDW. It almost hurt my hand with how rapid my firing had to be because of the gun's button. I'll add some photos either tomorrow or so. I'm going to try and renew my pro account on Flickr to add a good number of them there. I haven't used it in a long time so it'll be great to use it again.

[Amy]

Soarin08, it was amazing getting to meet you even and spend a bit of the day with you! I have to really thank you for helping us out throughout the rest of the trip and I'll definitely ask you for any additional help for when we plan for our return trip. It'll probably be within a few years but I know it will be after Fantasyland's expansion is done.

Amy, I personally think Buzz at DLR is different because I prefer the gun they use in DLR than WDW. It almost hurt my hand with how rapid my firing had to be because of the gun's button. I'll add some photos either tomorrow or so. I'm going to try and renew my pro account on Flickr to add a good number of them there. I haven't used it in a long time so it'll be great to use it again.

So the gun is a little different in DL, that sounds right. Does Toy Story Mania have a different firing mechanism out in DCA too? Is that one a button or a pull string. Did you ever make it on TSM in DHS or were the waits always too outrageous?

[elizabethswann]

We didn't go on TSM there because the wait was more than 60 minutes and the fastpass distribution had been turned off so we decided to go the next time.

[NaCler]

Awesome trip report Ms Swann. It was nice to see you plan this over the past year and to see the great trip that it became. Can't wait to see pics as I haven't seen them on FB.

[mindflipper]

I'm glad to see you experienced the buffet at Germany in WS. Our meet-up was the second time I've been there and it's a great place for lunch or dinner! I'm still missing the cauliflower soup (I wouldn't eat cauliflower if it was put in front of me, but done in a cream soup there was incredible)...

[Soarin08]

Now that you mention it, the cauliflower soup WAS amazing and I do hate it isn't there anymore. Maybe eventually. Who can say.

[mindflipper]

Normally the word "cauliflower" would send me scampering in the opposite direction but that soup was sooooooooo good...

Amy: TSMM at DLR and WDW were developed at the exact same time, and from the pictures I have seen is that while the ride vehicles and the guns are identical:

http://0.tqn.com/d/themeparks/1/5/E/p/TSMPre6.jpg

That's Disneyland, and this is from Disney World:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3225/284 ... 9782_z.jpg

[Amy]

Normally the word "cauliflower" would send me scampering in the opposite direction but that soup was sooooooooo good...

Amy: TSMM at DLR and WDW were developed at the exact same time, and from the pictures I have seen is that while the ride vehicles and the guns are identical:

http://0.tqn.com/d/themeparks/1/5/E/p/TSMPre6.jpg

That's Disneyland, and this is from Disney World:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3225/284 ... 9782_z.jpg

I thought I had seen or heard somewhere that the guns had different firing mechanisms ~ i.e. a pull-string in DHS, and a button in DCA
Who's been on Toy Story and DCA and can help us out?!
And cauliflower is tasty! But sort of stinky when you cook it

[MmeLeota]

Sounds like an amazing trip Ms. Swann! Glad you had a wonderful time on your first trip to WDW! What was your overall thought on CBR? Did you encounter many bus issues? (just curious since we stayed there in January...we were in Barbados)

mindflipper - Thanks! My mouth is now craving some cauliflower soup!

Amy - We didn't make it on TSM at DHS, but I can say that DCA's TSM is indeed a pull-string. As far as Buzz goes, while we didn't ride it this time, we've been on SRS before. We prefer BLAB (AstroBlasters) at DL as well. Simply because being able to take the "gun" out of the holster makes it so much easier to aim...though my scores would say otherwise