The Many Adventures of NaCler (& Family)

[NaCler]

I'm back... kind of. Dinner was at 7p mindflipper. Where were you??

[Amy]

I'm back... kind of. Dinner was at 7p mindflipper. Where were you??

He must have been a good boy and gone to work. And then hopefully went somewhere and celebrated his birthday today?
How was the whirlwind journey to the World?

[NaCler]

Amy - It was wonderful of course, just too quick. Met more wonderful Subsonicers and took plenty of pics/photos that I'll have up in the next couple of days.

[Amy]

Amy - It was wonderful of course, just too quick. Met more wonderful Subsonicers and took plenty of pics/photos that I'll have up in the next couple of days.

Oooo goody ~ more faces to go with names

[NaCler]

Yep, Soarin' and hockeygirl were nice enough to take time out of their Spring Break and College Program time to hang out with me for a little bit. They were nice enough to let me get a pic with them and have no problem with me posting it.

[mindflipper]

I'm back... kind of. Dinner was at 7p mindflipper. Where were you??

I had dinner locally for once with friends. If the old TARDIS was working my parents and I would be at Alfredo's in EPCOT, just the four of us...

[Amy]

I'm back... kind of. Dinner was at 7p mindflipper. Where were you??

I had dinner locally for once with friends. If the old TARDIS was working my parents and I would be at Alfredo's in EPCOT, just the four of us...

Did you use to rent out the whole restaurant for your birthday?! Or is that a new addition with the use of the Tardis?

[mindflipper]

I'm back... kind of. Dinner was at 7p mindflipper. Where were you??

I had dinner locally for once with friends. If the old TARDIS was working my parents and I would be at Alfredo's in EPCOT, just the four of us...

Did you use to rent out the whole restaurant for your birthday?! Or is that a new addition with the use of the Tardis?

No to renting whole restaurant. It had always been a tradition on my birthday to take a day trip to EPCOT and we would have an ADR for Alfredo's. Then when Alfredo's closed, we switched to France, but to us it just wasn't the same. None of us liked the the Alfredo replacement. We had been to Alfredo's in Rome and knew the Alfredo's at EPCOT was much the same, which made it feel genuine. The replacement to us looks like a more trendier Carrabba's with higher prices. Very disappointing.

[NaCler]

Men's Trip - Day One, March 25, 2011:

Planned agenda:
8am - Leave for WDW
11am - Check in at Port Orleans French Quarter
12p-9pm - Play in the MK (Maybe meet hockeygirl and Soarin' somewhere along the way)
9pm - MSEP, then leave... unless I can CONVINCE everyone to stay until park closes @ 11pm

Reality:
The boys and I boarded grandma's van about 8:30am to travel from Jacksonville to WDW. Unfortunately, grandma would not be joining us as planned as she received quite a bit of bad news about dad the day before and since you have to cancel resort ressies at least 48 hours in advance, we would have wasted quite a bit as we had 2 rooms at French Quarter. Mom made us (My sister and I) promise that we would still go and take the boys down to WDW as they had been looking forward to it for months. We are obedient children, so we agreed and left grandma behind.

Now, the last time I went to WDW with my sister there was a HUGE accident on I95 coming back from the parks that shut down the Interstate for 3 hours (we still joke about that to this day). WELL, there was a HUGE accident AGAIN, this time on the way down to WDW, threatening our park time as we were only going to the MK that day and DTD/swimming the next.

I was able to divert my path and take A1A all the way down the coast to Daytona Beach, so that I could catch I4. Unfortunately, my sister was caught in the mess and was diverted a route she was unfamiliar with. During this slight detour I was surprised by a text message from an unknown number! The person said that they were going to be a DHS that morning but would make a trip over to the MK to see me! Yep, it was from hockeygirl. Her and Soarin' were still interested in getting together if we could manage it. We swapped info about what colors we were wearing and set a general time to meet.

My sister and I arrived at POFQ just after Noon and had no problems checking in and getting our 1 day passes. Our rooms were ready so we dropped off the luggage and headed out to the bus stop.

I apologize in advance as my camera apparently had something smudged on the lens and blurred out parts of the pictures on the first day.

Arriving at the MK. This is the crew: Sister, Bro-in-Law, my two boys and one of my nephews (Yes, I know they were wearing girl shirts, but I didn't buy them, so what could I do???):



Welcome to Main Street??? More fake facades:


With kids and entering in the afternoon we knew we had to use some Fastpasses to our advantage if we wanted to get everything done that we wanted. We headed straight to Peter Pan and got the FP, then I managed to talk them into Haunted Mansion, as I could not wait to check out that new queue.






The queue is awesome. If you don't like it, you can bypass it and it will get you in the Mansion faster. In fact, the CM standing at the fork in the line described it as the fun side or the quicker side. MOST people were choosing the new queue area, but I was surprised at home many jumped on the reduced wait time. Once the queues merge again, you can still see the graveyard outside the front door, so they didn't take anything away from the way it was before. There are only two gripes I had about the new queue area and that was that the line moved too quick. You couldn't stand there and play for too long, which was a shame. The other is that the new queue area was not open at night. More on that, "a little later."

We had not eaten at all so far and it was around 2pm so we decided to stop at the Columbia Harbor House, which is getting to be a family tradition. After that we went to the Country Bears and I got a little video. First clip is my favorite part of the show and the other is the Finale.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dYOD77Is1s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z50_tWPT6q4

We then cut through and got Fast Passes for Jungle Cruise. We got a quick pic of the remodeling Tiki Room. It was the one attraction my boys were really looking forward to.



We rode on Pirates to kill time before our Jungle Cruise. It was about a 13 minute wait. Then I took the boys over to the Magic Carpets and decided to video the experience. Warning, this video could cause motion sickness, but it's only about 1 minute and 30 seconds long, so risk it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo_FQxOlFps

After the wild carpet ride, I got a text from hockeygirl saying that her and Soarin' were waiting in front of the Jungle Cruise for me. I was able to meet-up with them, catch-up a little bit, ate some Dole Whip Floats and got a pic:

From Left to Right: Soarin' (shockingly in a Yellow Submarine shirt), NaCler and hockeygirl


I would have loved to have spent the rest of the day with these two great ladies, but I had a limited amount of time and most of my family with me, so that made it impossible. By the way, Soarin' did make the College Program and has a few weeks left at her position in Trails End at Fort Wilderness.

Jungle Cruise Voyage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAzlSlr5LvM

After Jungle Cruise we made our way over to Peter Pan to use our FP. Then we walked right into a 1/2 full Philharmagic showing. It's such a great attraction, so it's really sad that the crowds just aren't showing up for it. We then took a final ride on Snow White to say goodbye. I filmed it, but halfway through my battery died, so here's the truncated version of the goodbye:

Too dark to see most of it, but what do you want? It's a DARK ride.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysrV8ntUEu8

We headed over to Tomorrowland to get a FP for Buzz Lightyear. To kill time we rode on the Carousel of Progress and the Peoplemover. We paused a moment as they apparently have a DJ who plays mainly High School Musical type music while kids can dance with characters in Spacey looking costumes. I believe it was Chip, Dale, Goofy and Pluto. I did not take any photos of this as my hands were busy covering my ears.

Here are some different vantage shots from the Peoplemover:





I did take the time to try out a snack that has been recommended on here several times, the sweet cream cheese filled pretzel. Pretty good snack, but it's definitely not in my top three at WDW.



It was time for Buzz, so it was time for me to show off:

My score:


I was riding with my boy Andrew:


Yes, I felt bad about scoring almost 500,000 points while my boy only got about 800, but I got over it.

After Buzz it was getting close to the time where we needed to sit and wait for the MSEP, so we went into the Monster's Inc Laugh Floor to kill the last of the time. It was very cute as usual. I was hoping to be "THAT GUY" so I could show off my button to everyone I knew, but alas, I was not chosen. I did submit a corny joke from my sister that was selected and spoken during the attraction, though!

It was about 8:25pm and we decided to go ahead and get our spot for the MSEP. I ran out and got probably my favorite snack on property, the Mickey's Premium Ice Cream Bar. Yes, I know it's just a chocolate bar... but, it's special... for what reason I can't explain. Here are a couple of pics from the parade:




After the parade we went to the front of the castle and sat down to wait for the Magic, Memories and You show and Wishes fireworks. We got a great spot about 10 rows away from the steps of the castle. Here are pics of both:







After the fireworks, we didn't feel like making the MASS Exodus with everyone down Main Street, so I talked everyone into a night trip on the Jungle Cruise. If you haven't done it before, I HIGHLY recommend going at night. The entire ride is pitch black and the only light they have comes from spot lights on the boat. It is very eerie and makes it more exciting. The ancient ruins seemed more illuminated (naturally as your eyes don't have to adjust). Even the back side of water seemed more exciting.

It was about 20 minutes until park close... yes, that's 10:40pm with three kids under 8yo. I guess I'm tough when I visit WDW! We made our way over to the Haunted Mansion again as I wanted to see how the new queue area looked at night. Imagine an eerie walk through crypts in minimal illumination and fog... BUT, the new side of the queue was CLOSED! What a rip! I hope this is only temporary until they figure out the best way to do it at night, but it was very disappointing.

It was right at 11pm when we exited the HM and the MSEP was about to start again. But, Frontierland was a GHOST TOWN. It was roped off, but no one was there! Very creepy. I definitely recommend staying until the last showing of MSEP in order to get a good seat with minimal wait.

We stopped off at the Emporium as we danced to the MSEP music passing by. Then made our way to the buses. We walked right onto a bus for French Quarter and left about 5 minutes later with a total of about 20 people on board! We couldn't have planned it any better!

We hadn't eaten dinner, so I was VERY pleased to see that the pizza area of the food court was still open. We opted for the large cheese pizza, a couple of beers and drinks for me and my boys. We ate watching while Suite Life on Deck until we passed out:



The end of a GREAT DAY! Tomorrow... Day 2: DTD and a date with a TREX and a Sea Serpent!

[mindflipper]

Good trip report, NaCler! I wonder if the reason the new HM queue area is closed at night because the crowds are not as large, and they feel there's no need for it then as there is in the daytime?

[Amy]

You managed to pack a lot into your shortened day! I wouldn't have noticed the boys were wearing girls shirts if you hadn't said anything.
That is weird that the HM interactive side isn't open at night. mindflipper might be on to something that they just don't feel the need for having it open with smaller crowds. It seems like it would be an awesome side to experience at night though. Hopefully as you said, they will figure out lighting and other logistics and have it open!
That is a great photo of the boys and your sister in the People Mover
I hope the Magic, Memories and You show continues for awhile. It really does look like a great show with all the projections on the castle.
Nice addition of videos to the report!! Looking forward to day 2!

[Amy]

Hey NaCler ~ I forgot to ask. Now that someone we know has had a chance to see the crypt in person, is there any purpose to the books popping in and out or is it just something to watch? I see people in the videos trying to push them back in. Can you actually push them back in? Are there any sound effects? That book that is writing itself and needs help with the rhyming word is on the end of the books right?

[NaCler]

Amy - I cheated... I listened to the podcast from Inside the Magic by Ricky Brigante and he explained the books popping out. It looks like they are just random books that pop out intermittently and it becomes kind of like "Whack a Mole" where people think they are pushing them back in. The truth is that they pop out in tandem and have symbols on them that create a message when you figure out the legend. There is a good sized message that is really cool. I will only reveal it if people want me to...

Also, the book from Ms. Pock is on the end of the library with the popping books. Her part is really cool as she begins the rhyme and then waits for someone to complete it. If no one shouts out the answer, she just basically keeps asking for the answer from her "Muses". Here is a brief video of this entire area. Sorry for the change in angles as I'm not the best videographer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJtAhnO2oas

[NaCler]

For Day 2 I think I'm just going to post the pics I took. We just basically went to DTD then back to the French Quarter to swim. We left for Jacksonville after that, so there's not too much to report on. Enjoy the pics.

French Quarter from the boat:


Fulton's from the boat:


16th hole of Lake Buena Vista Golf Course... for kcarts:


Saratoga Springs resort from the dock by Captain Jacks/Rainforest Cafe:


World of Disney store pics:






TREX pics:


We ate in the Ice Cave:


D Street... Mecca for VM enthusiasts:


Characters in Flight (Couldn't talk everyone into doing this.):


Outside of Raglan Road:


A Store in the Marketplace side that MANY of you will love:

[mindflipper]

Yeh, I like that store in the Marketplace, NaCler. It's the right place for a lefty like me...

So the kids are a hindrance for the enjoyment of the parks, eh?