Kenneth was recovering from foot surgery he had back in September and was anticipating the second foot, which was scheduled in December. He was busy at work and anxious to get away knowing just what this second surgery and the recovery would be like. I admitted the plan Awsumb and I were trying to work out to surprise him and told him if he really wanted to spend his 40th in WDW we would love to make it happen.
This would be a quick trip and a bit of a "Gumball Rally" as we tried to fit everything in that we wanted to see and do in just a few days. So we revealed to Awsumb that once again it was time to "Put on your Mickey Ears! We're going to Disney WORLD!"
Thursday, November 29
Day 1 - Travel
1. 5am Fly Seattle to Orlando
2. 5pm Check in at Disney’s Beach Club
3. Walk to Epcot to switch Disneyland Annual Pass to Premiere Pass. Everyone kept telling us the back gate would be able to help us. I don’t know why they can’t just do this stuff at the front desk of the resorts. It is sure annoying to have to run all over to sort these things out when all you want is to start your vacation. We were told guests services was not equipped to help us at this back entry. But, they offered to escort us through the gates to walk to the front of the park where they were set up for this type of transaction. We decided to split up.
4. Friendship Boat back to Resort to check out Storm Along Bay…
5. The Beach- Just missed the campfire on the beach with marshmallows, but sat down to watch a movie on the beach while waiting for Kenneth to return from Epcot with our new passes.
6. Dinner at Cape May. By this time we were so hungry and just wanted dinner. Although we had a previous reservation because we didn’t know where we would be and where we might have to end up going to upgrade our passes. I really didn’t think it would be such a big deal to get dinner at the resort we were staying in, especially if we weren’t picky. Turns out I was wrong. Reservations are just the norm at WDW for any meal more than counter service. I about had it. All I wanted was to have simple dinner and wish my husband a happy birthday and get to sleep. Maybe even swim in the pool. After lots of back and forth we finally ended up eating at Cape May. It was ok and we all found plenty that we each enjoyed off the buffet. Although there was crab and such because we are from the northwest it was nothing special. But I really enjoyed the salads! I heard someone behind me tell her friend, “I don’t really like fish.” Just a tip, but don’t eat at Cape May if you don’t like fish!
Friday November 30
Day 2 - Hollywood Studios (16 Attractions)
1. 9:15am Friendship Boats to Hollywood Studios. Pick up Toy Story FP/Sign up for Jedi Training
3. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
4. Tower of Terror
5. Beauty and the Beast – Live on Stage
6. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
7. Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
8. The Brown Derby for lunch at 1:30pm
9. The Great Movie Ride
10. Photos with Phineas and Ferb (longest line of the trip)
11. Star Tours
12. 5:00pm Friendship Boats to Beach Club
13. Swim at Storm Along Bay
My only comments are that although the sand bottom is really fun because the pool is so big and there are so many shallow depth changes it is easy to be walking through the sand then scrape your foot on the rough bottom during a depth change. I think these are set up because of some of the features in the pool like the whirlpool, etc. But it’s easy to ruin a pedicure! My little guy loved the waterslide from the pirate ship and went over and over again.
14. WDW Today Meet Up. We went to WDW to celebrate Kenneth’s 40th Birthday, who got the idea when he head WDW Today has a special group rate and event that weekend. There were a few different types of special events we could have gone to, but because our home park is Disneyland not Disneyworld we figured our time was better spent exploring the parks. We did decide we didn’t want to miss out on the party at Hollywood Studio’s after park closing at 8:00pm to see The Osborne Light show.
Everyone tells you everything is walkable when you stay at The Beach Club. What they don’t tell you is that the walk to Hollywood Studios is really a 30 min trudge. At least it feels like that after little sleep for 2 days, a full day at the park and swimming all evening. We should have just waited for the next Friendship boat, but we were worried about making it to the park before closing at 8:00pm. So, we just took off full speed ahead. And half way there the boat passed us! I was so tired at that point I thought about jumping in the water so they would have to rescue me!
We did make it, just in time. We were led to a waiting area and my little guy was able to meet all the Podcast Guys and get the autographs. He thought it was the coolest thing ever. We realized that since we don’t really listen the radio, these podcast guys were celebrities to him. They were all very kind to each spend some time talking with him.
15. Toy Story Mania. As the light show was being reset we were given this as a surprise. (Which was perfect because we had abandoned our FP tickets we had picked up earlier in the day so we could go back and swim.)
16. Osborne Lights/Dessert Party. We were all given a gold box stuffed with treats, apples, sweet breads, cookies, brownies, etc. Plus there was hot chocolate, cider and punch available). I would say there was less than 75 of us there. So fun to explore the lights and have the park to ourselves! By about 11:00 pm the park had been closed for some time there was no transportation. We must have looked lost, so Ken, one of the transportation managers drove us back to the resort in his van. Then we ended up ordering room service dinner. The options weren’t as good as we expected. Our little guy fell asleep. Kenneth had a burger and I had a nice tomato, mozzarella and arugula salad.
Saturday, Dec 1
Day 3 - Epcot (16 Attractions)
2. Spaceship Earth – Ok, those videos were hilarious! Why can’t they email the whole video to you? Definitely made such a dated ride.
3. Innovention’s Sum of all thrills. My 11 year old thought designing his ride was so cool. Glad we didn’t miss this one.
4. Photo Pass at the front of Epcot
5. Character Photos with Mickey and Minnie (Vent - Why are all the buildings in Florida so hot? In California all the buildings are so cool and comfortable.)
6. The Seas with Nemo and Friends (And I thought the new Little Mermaid ride was bad)
7. Soarin’ (Ok, why don’t they call this what it is Soarin’ over California. Sure it’s a favorite of ours too, but I don’t understand why the wait is so awful. You really must get a FP in Florida. Our other observation was the cue and cast members were lacking compared to California.)
8. Living with the Land
9. Friendship Boat to World Showcase
10. Teppan Edo (Reservation was for 1:30pm. We didn’t make it there until 2:30pm. We were seated with another party that had allergy issues. So they basically made three separate meals, which made our dinner take much longer than we had planned. But we did enjoy our meal.
11. 5pm: Candlelight Processional. The crowd was pretty thick and so our plan to see Santa before or after was scrapped. Little did we know that would be our only chance to see Santa in WDW. In California there are so many more places to see Santa including your resort if you stay at The Grand Californian.
12. China - Reflections of China in circle-vision
13. Germany (no Hummel’s?!?! Our last trip about 10 years ago one of the new generation was there signing Hummel’s and I was so looking forward to getting another one. So sad to learn Goebel is no longer producing them.)
14. Norway - Maelstrom Viking Boat and Movie. My sons name is from Norway, and he just finished a big report on immigration from Norway. On our last trip there were more things important from Norway for sale.
15. Mexico - Grand Fiesta Ride
16. 8:30 Illuminations - fireworks and water show. We had preferred seating with our dining package. In retrospect I think you can probably see the show from anywhere and instead of lining up in our assigned area we should have made our way over to Canada, UK and France, which we missed on our last trip as well! Basically Epcot is a two day park. Or a park to pick up a few things here and there when you pop in for a dinner reservation. We did miss out on Le Cellier Steakhouse because they had no reservations and our trip was pretty last minute. If we had planned to stay longer we could have picked up the last few things we didn’t get to see before or after dinner one evening.
We arrived back to our room to find room service had accidently delivered a beautiful cracker, cheese and fruit platter to our room by mistake along with a card wishing Glena and Silvia a Happy Anniversary. After we called the front desk they told us to enjoy and they would send another up to Glen and Sylvia. We were sooooo tired and it had been such a long day. This special delivery was just what we needed. And now whenever something magical happens we exclaim, "God Bless Glen and Sylvia!"
Sunday, December 2
Day 4 – Magic kingdom (20)
1. Sorcerers of Magic Kingdom Card Adventure. We probably shouldn’t have wasted our first hour doing this, but if you go to WDW all the time it’s a fun idea.
2. Castle Photo Pass.
3. Buzz Lightyear Spinner
4. Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor
5. Buzz Meet and Greet
6. Carousel of Progress
7. Space Mountain X2 (Gotta try out both tracks!)
9. Mickey PhilharMagic 3D
10. Crystal Palace Character Meal with Pooh and Friends. We could have skipped this. Lunch was OK, but not great and our little guy seemed a little grown up for the crowd there. We should have checked out Be Our Guest, the new restaurant in Fantasyland.
11. Peter Pan with Fast Pass.
12. Haunted Mansion – the new interactive cue is super fun!
13. Hall of Presidents
14. Splash Mountain
15. Jungle Cruise
16. Pirates of the Caribbean
17. Thunder Mountain
18. Magic Kingdom closed at 7:00pm for the new ticketed Christmas Party. Cast Members instantly turned cold and we thought we would be able to talk out through the shops. Wrong – “Get a Wristband” became our new family catch phrase as we were kicked out of the park. We debated about buying tickets to the Christmas Party all day… but we were there for such short visit. Maybe it would have helped our day feel more leisurely instead of so rushed.
19. Swim at Storm Along Bay
20. Beaches and Cream for dinner. Where my husband finally got to order THE KITCHEN SINK! I chose the tomato soup and it was so good we knew we were be back just for that.
Monday, December 3
Day 5 – Animal Kingdom (17 attractions)
Checking out the Christmas Tree (not the reflection in his glasses)
Kids always think the tricks the photo pass guys insert are fun!
2.
Tree of Life Photos
4.
Kilimanjaro Safaris
UH OH!
5.
Pangani Forest Trail
6.
Festival of the Lion King
7.
Christmas Mickey and Safari Donald Duck Meet and
Greet
8.
Yak and Yeti for lunch. It was so hot and muggy all morning with
cloud cover. Lunch was cool and relaxing.
The little guy had seared ahi appetizer
for his entrée. I chose the salmon and
Kenneth a steak and shrimp prepared like a volcano!
9.
Finding Nemo – The Musical
10.
Boneyard Playground
11.
Dinosaur x2
No wait, they would have let us stay in that car all day if we wanted
to! New family catch phrase, “We’re not
gonna make it, we’re not gonna make it! ….
We made it.” Which was basically the
theme of our trip. We basically waited for nothing, but also that meant we
never took a break, never sat on a bench, didn’t even really have a snack. Even
the shows were always made it just in time. It was exhausting!
12.
Everest x3
Ok, no one told me this went backwards… And as it went backwards in
complete darkness I yelled “Are we supposed to be going backwards!?! Are we going upside down!?!” My boys laughed at my surprise and assured me
we didn’t go upside down. I screamed, “Well I went upside down!” This was also walk on. I guess evenings at Animal Kingdom are just
super slow as everyone leaves because the animals go in for the night.
13.
Kali River Rapids x5 This is pretty short compared to the raft
ride in California with less thrills so it wasn’t quite so “Soakin’ Awesome!”
as it could be. But we still managed to
get soaked!
14.
It’s Tough to be a Bug
15.
Russell and Doug Meet and Greet - Park closed 7:00pm (Awsumb is still soaking wet!)
17.
Swim Storm Along Bay
Tuesday, December 4
Day 6 – Travel
Magic Kingdom Early
Morning Hours (16 attractions)
1.
Ears
2.
Space Mountain x2
3.
Buzz Lightyear Spinners
4.
Jungle cruise
5.
Pirates of the Caribbean
6.
Thunder Mountain X2
7.
Splash Mountain
8.
Haunted Mansion
Check out of The Beach Club and
have a quick Snack Lunch
9.
Friendship boat to Hollywood Studios
10.
Rock n Roll x2
11.
Tower of Terror
12.
Behind mouse
13.
Friendship boat back to Beach Club
4:00pm Town Car arrived to take us to the airport for our 6:30
pm flight home to Seattle… The airport was a nightmare and super busy. The flight was long and cramped. We should have used our afternoon to enjoy a
leisurely meal… I just couldn’t click my heels fast enough to get home! I usually have suitcases dumped out and laundry
started by the time Kenneth settles with the cab driver. If it weren’t for the wet clothes packed I
would have left everything as it was by the front door because I was just
completely drained. But I managed to sort
loads and put the luggage away before falling into bed by midnight.
And just like our last visit, which was for a week I told
Kenneth, next time we need to go for 10 days or more and really take it easy!
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