Who:
\nPaul, 31: 17 previous WDW\/DLR\/DCL trips
\nAmanda, 15: first timer<\/p>\n
When:
\nJuly 10 – 18, 2010<\/p>\n
Where:
\nDisney’s Pop Century Resort<\/p>\n
Why:
\nSiblings’ first vacation together
\nHarry Potter opening at Universal
\nBecause I decided not to wait another 3 years for her to graduate<\/p>\n
For the backstory to how this vacation came to be, please see my Trip Preview: http:\/\/bit.ly\/c4rZce<\/a><\/p>\n For the “quick highlights”, please see my blog posts at http:\/\/blog.mritty.net\/?p=34<\/a> and http:\/\/blog.mritty.net\/?p=35<\/a><\/p>\n Day 1: Arrival and Epcot<\/p>\n I spent the previous night at my parents’ place (they happen to live in the same town as Amanda and her parents). I picked up Amanda at about 6am, and drove to BDL. No issues getting through security, so our concerns about the metal rods in her back were for naught. While we were sitting and waiting for our flight, there were some fellow Disney freaks there, most of whom expressed shock that she was 15 and had never been to WDW before. At this point, Amanda was still under the false Once we got on the plane and it reached cruising altitude, I pulled out my laptop computer, and we each plugged in a set of earphones. I put on the All About The Mouse finale podcast from a few weeks earlier. On it, Upon arrival at MCO, we had less than a 5 minute wait in the Magical Our first stop was to get a FastPass for Soarin’ (already into about 6pm Now back to the front of the park for Spaceship Earth. Probably about a Our next stop was to Guest Services. I needed to upgrade Amanda’s 5 Day While the CM was processing her ticket upgrade, she was asking me what In any event, when her upgrade was finished, we did indeed use the We next went over to Innoventions for our Disney Visa character photo. Next up was Captain EO. My first Disney trip was in 2004, so I never We went to Club Cool next. No, I did not try to trick her into drinking Since we were already at the front of the park again, we went across the Getting hungry, so we started walking toward World Showcase for our After dinner, we went over to the International Gateway for our Kim It’s only about 7:30pm now, but we are dead tired (remember, we’d each Now here comes the insanity. IllumiNations started at 9pm. Disney’s This was the one attraction we’d talked about that Amanda was somewhat We exited the park and went back to the buses. Again with the great The Good: Arriving in WDW, getting the surprise FastPass from Guest Services Thanks for reading. Days 2 through 9 will be forthcoming.<\/p>\n
\nimpression that we’d be staying offsite, so I had to lie to them when they asked where we were staying too.<\/p>\n
\nJonathan Dichter did me the supreme favor of reading my email, in which
\nI (via him) revealed the surprise to Amanda. That we were staying at
\nPop Century, rather than offsite. She was completely shocked and
\namazed. Apparently I was better at not revealing the surprise than I’d
\nfeared. We spent the rest of the flight listening to Lou Mongello’s
\nAudio Guides to Walt Disney World. She was surprised that there was
\nenough to talk about “just a street” to warrant an hour or more of talking.<\/p>\n
\nExpress line before we boarded a bus. To my delight, Pop was the first
\nstop. We went to the Online Checkin line, and received our keycards for
\nour room in the 50’s section. Amanda also got her next (albeit
\ncomparatively tiny) surprise: the first-timer button from the CM
\nchecking us in. We dropped our carryons in our room, applied sunscreen,
\nand immediately left again. By now, it was only about 11:45 or so.
\nAmanda took some of her spending money and bought a Gift Card at the Pop
\ngift shop, and then we got in line for the buses to Epcot. Again, no
\nmore than a 5-10 minute wait for a bus.<\/p>\n
\nby then, fwiw). We were going to go on Living with the Land, but a
\nTourGroup had just flooded the queue, so we got lunch at Sunshine
\nSeasons first. Amanda was surprised to see such different options
\navailable, as her only experience with theme park counter service food
\nis Six Flags’s burgers and chicken fingers. After lunch, we did indeed
\ngo onto Living with the Land. There were a lot of new crops that I
\ndidn’t remember seeing the last time I was here, including an entire
\nsection on “edible water plants”.<\/p>\n
\n10 minute wait, but the continuous-loading attractions queues almost
\nnever bother me, since you’re almost always moving forward anyway. This
\nwas the attraction Amanda was most looking forward too, as she loved the
\nsight of the geodesic sphere in all the photos I’d been showing her as
\nwe were leading up to the trip. It very much met and exceeded her
\nexpectations. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
\nPark Hopper to a 6 Day PH + Water Park ticket. I’d bought her ticket
\noriginally from Undercover Tourist, and for whatever reason the 6 day
\noption wasn’t there when I bought it. I also tried getting my WDW AP
\nupgraded to a Premier Passport, but I was told that the Guest Services
\nhere in the park couldn’t do that upgrade, and I had to visit the one
\noutside the park to do it. Odd, but okay, I’d get that done another day.<\/p>\n
\nwe were going to do next. She asked about getting a FastPass for Test
\nTrack. I replied that we couldn’t get one yet, because we still had a
\nFastPass for Soarin and our next FastPass availability wasn’t for
\nanother hour or so. Upon hearing this, the CM gave Amanda her first
\nMagical Moment: he said that since it was her first time, and she wanted
\nto ride Test Track so much, he’d give us two instant-use FastPasses so
\nthat we could go ride it right then and there. She was amazed that
\nanyone would do that. I said I wish I was still surprised by things
\nlike that, but that I have so much experience with completely awesome
\nCMs giving stuff like that, that the surprise has worn off.<\/p>\n
\nFastPass at Test Track. She was incredulous about how many people we
\nwere walking past (it was about a 50 minute wait at the time, if memory
\nserves). The ride thankfully did not break down at all, and she
\nthoroughly enjoyed it.<\/p>\n
\nThe characters were Goofy & Minnie (it seems to be them
\ndisproportionately often). We also did the Sum of All Thrills while we
\nwere here. I continue to assert that this attraction spells the death
\nof DisneyQuest, as it blows Cyberspace Mountain out of the water.
\nBefore leaving Innoventions, we also got a ticket to do the Kim Possible
\nadventure later in the evening.<\/p>\n
\nsaw the film during its original run. Frankly, though, anything that
\nmakes Honey I Shrunk the Audience go away has to be a good thing in my
\nbook. Gone was any theming in the queue holding area about the
\nImagination Institute. The pre-show now was actually a
\ndocumentary-style “making of” the film we were about to see. I found
\nthat a little bit odd. As for the movie itself… eh. I mean, it
\nwasn’t bad. It was just very, VERY 80’s. I can understand why those
\nwho grew up during its initial run might want to see it again for
\nNostalgic reasons, but I personally have no desire to go see it a second
\ntime.<\/p>\n
\nthe Beverly. While we were there though, something about our previous
\nticket upgrade finally clicked in my head. I realized I’d been over
\ncharged by about $40. I was charged something like $95, when the cost
\nto go from 5 to 6 days should have been only $3, and the cost of adding
\nthe Water Park option should have been only about $50. So we headed
\nback to Guest Services, and I explained the situation. The CMs that
\nwere there now realized that the previous CM had forgotten to do an
\ninternal upgrade from my discounted ticket to the gate ticket before
\nupgrading to the new 6D WP ticket. Hence, my discount from
\nUnderCoverTourist was not carried over. Finding no way to rectify the
\nactual ticket, the CMs simply processed a refund in the amount of the
\ndiscount back to my credit card. All good.<\/p>\n
\nplaza to the camera center and picked up our Disney Visa photo. (And
\nwhen I say “picked up”, I mean “had sent back to our hotel” – which
\nAmanda found awesome). Then back to The Land for Soarin’ with our
\nFastPass. Love this ride. Love it love it love it. I asked to wait
\nfor B1, as always. My only complaint is that I wish the film and\/or
\nprojector could be cleaned up more frequently. Seeing the dust and
\ndirty on the film (not to mention the occasional bug seeming to move on
\nthe projector lens) is really distracting.<\/p>\n
\ndinner at Chefs De France. This was my first time at this restaurant
\ntoo. Amanda had a salad and the baked Macaroni & Cheese. I had the
\nlobster bisque and the braised short ribs. Both were very very good.
\nWe shared a Creme Brule for dessert (her first time having one).
\nOverall, I was pleased with the restaurant. I mean, expensive as all
\nhell of course, but that’s almost to be expected at a Disney restaurant.
\n My one regret was that I forgot to buy the Tables in Wonderland card
\nwhile I was at Guest Services, so I lost out on a 20% discount. Oh well.<\/p>\n
\nPossible adventure. The young CM who was to give us our ticket was,
\nshall we say, loquatious. I did my best to be polite, but after a few
\nminutes, I’m sure my expression was saying “Please kindly shut up and
\nlet us get on with it, thank you.” Our adventure was in France. I
\ndon’t want to spoil anything for anyone who later does this adventure,
\nbut some of the effects were just truly amazing. For such a
\ncomparatively simple process, Kim Possible remains one of my most
\nbizzarely favorite things to do in Epcot.<\/p>\n
\nwaken up at like 5am that morning), so we had a seat on the bridge
\nbetween the UK and France and waited for IllumiNations. When it finally
\nstarted, the wait was more than worth it. Amanda’s jaw didn’t close the
\nentire time. She was completely blown away, and when the globe opened
\nnear the end, I thought her eyes were going to pop out. She said she
\nnow fully understood why I say that Disney has thoroughly ruined all
\nother fireworks shows for me. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
\nHollywood Studios didn’t close until 10pm. That gave us roughly 45
\nminutes to leave Epcot, get to DHS, get in the turnstiles and into the
\nqueue for Tower of Terror. Yup. So we started walking. We saw no
\nFriendship boat on the horizon, so I decided not to wait for it, as the
\nthree stops it would have to make would most likely not get us to DHS in
\ntime. So we walked from the International Gateway along to the
\nboardwalk, over to the Swolphin, and to the path behind the Boardwalk
\nInn that would lead us to DHS. We made it through the turnstiles with
\nabout 10 minutes to spare. Wheee! So here was Amanda’s second-ever
\nDisney Park. We booked it down Sunset Blvd and into the queue for Tower
\nof Terror.<\/p>\n
\nnervous about. She claimed to not like the sensation of falling. So I
\nwanted to do it on our first day to get her past her fears. I was also
\nanxious to see the new Summer Nighttastic effects on the Tower, which
\nhappens to be my favorite attraction. I have to say I was mildly
\ndisappointed in that aspect. The new effects were okay, but certainly
\nnot worth a trip to WDW (in contrast to the MSEP, which I know some
\npeople did make a trip down just to see). I won’t list them here, in
\ncase anyone wants to be surprised by them when they head down later this
\nsummer. Amanda made it through ToT unharmed, of course. When it was
\nfinished, she said “Oh, was that it?!”. Oy.<\/p>\n
\nluck for transportation, as there was a bus at the Pop stop already, and
\nwas ready to leave when we boarded. When we got back to Pop Century, we
\nfound our checked bags from DME in our room as expected. (I have taken
\nDME at least 12 or 13 times now, and never had a problem with my bags –
\nare other people still experiencing difficulties?). We each decided to
\ntake showers in the evening before bed, both because we were covered in
\nsweat and so that we could have a few extra minutes in the morning.
\nThen we each passed out within about 5 minutes of laying down. A very
\nlong, very good day.<\/p>\n
\nThe Bad: Having to go back to Guest Services to correct the upgrade mistake
\nThe Magical: Amanda’s reactions to the initial surprise on the plane,
\nand IllumiNations.<\/p>\n