Chambers' January Trip 09 Days 5-9

[jonah'smom]

Chambers' Disney Trip Report 2009
January 3 - 11

Cast of Characters:
Me, 29
DH, 29
DS, 8

Preface - This was our 6th trip to Disney since our first trip in 2003.

Day 5, January 7 - Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom
Arrived at the Studios around 11 and checked out the times for the shows we wanted to see today. Decided to just fit in Lights, Motors, Action as far as shows go. Headed to Muppets first, then came out to find our first & only rain shower of the trip. Saw that Lighting McQueen & Mater were out even in the rain so headed over there to take advantage of no line! Snapped a quick pic and ran to get out of the rain as we decided to leave the ponchos in the car. Oh well, the rain was very short lived thankfully! We then headed to the Great Movie Ride. Afterwards, just out of curiousity we checked out the wait for Toy Story Mania, and it was ridiculous of course. We grabbed some popcorn & a drink and then went into One Man's Dream before heading back to the stunt show. After the stunt show, we went to use our fastpass for Rockin' Rollercoaster. This was DS first ride on RnR. He had already conquered BTMRR & EE, but even still he was nervous about the ride. He didn't love it but was proud of himself for riding, so we bought the picture. Afterwards, we went back to eat lunch at Pizza Planet, DS favorite of course. DH got the pepperoni, I had the veggie & DS had the kids' cheese pizza. DH got a cookie for dessert & I had the Mickey rice crispy treat. On our way out of the park, we caught the very end of Block Party Bash as they were heading into the backstage area.

We originally had ADR's for dinner at the Coral Reef at Epcot for this evening, but we changed our mind and decided to have Whispering Canyon Cafe instead. Very good choice! We drove over to the Wilderness Lodge and parked, then jumped on the boat launch over to MK. We walked onto Main Street just before 5pm and happened upon the Flag Retreat for the first time in all our visits. This was a very pleasant find for us. We then headed over to Tomorrowland. Did the Laugh Floor, Astro Orbiter, Space Mountain twice & then headed into Toontown for the Barnstormer & then hit Small World before the fireworks started. Watched the fireworks from behind the castle and headed out of the park. Very pleased to be able to walk right onto a waiting boat back to the Wilderness Lodge. Walked right into Whispering Canyon even though we were early for our ressie and were seated very quickly. DH & I each had the skillet. DS had a cheeseburger. Had to wait on ketchup! For dessert I had the Smores Cheesecake (YUMMY!!!!) and DH ordered the apple pie, but they brought out chocolate cake. He got to keep it and they brought the pie too. Huge desserts here and all were very good!

Day 6, January 8 - Epcot, Hollywood Studios
We had ADR's for Chef Mickey's at 9:50 for breakfast. We parked at the TTC and took the monorail over. The construction was very loud here, but the food & characters were great as always. We arrived at Epcot after 11. Headed to WS. DS bought a passport and had them stamp it in all the countries as well as getting the tags on his mask. We browsed through all the pavilions before 3:30. Grabbed some pretzels & a drink and sat down for a break before leaving the park. We wanted to see the 5:30 show of Indiana Jones at the studio, and had intentions of seeing Fantasmic this evening. But, we left our sweatshirts back at the room. Since we were later leaving the parked than we hoped, DH & DS took the monorail back to the car and then drove straight to the Studios. I took a bus back to POR & grabbed the sweatshirts and then took a bus to the Studios. DH & DS went ahead and got in line for the show as soon as they arrived at the park. I met them as they were being let in to the theater. We were able to get second row seats & I got picked to be an extra!! After the show, we went straight to the Fantasmic theater and arrived 40 minutes before showtime to find it was standing room only. After getting into the theater, we decided to leave because we didn't want to stand for 30 minutes before the show and 30 minutes during. After getting out of the madness, we noticed that the wait for Tower was 70 minutes, even with that theater filled to capacity. We headed to do Star Tours instead. Just out of curiosity again we went over to check the wait for TSM. At 10 minutes till park close, the wait was 110 minutes!!!! Oh my, this was definitely the biggest crowds we had seen all week. We didn't have an ADR for dinner and had planned to eat counter service somewhere, but we were tired of Disney food by now. We headed over to the Crossroads area and ate dinner at TGI Fridays. At 8:00 DS was down for the count after finishing his dinner! We were planning to do putt putt, but headed back to the room instead to turn in at 9:00!

Day 7, January 9 - Winter Summerland golf, Epcot for Evening EMH
We decided to get a late start again today. We went over & played putt-putt at Winter Summerland before going to the parks today. Then we stopped by the Boardwalk and walked around checking out the sights. We headed back to the resort and had lunch at the food court again. DH got another turkey sandwich, I had the Muffaletta, and DS got chicken again. For dessert I had cheesecake & DH had carrot cake. We decided to rent some kayaks. What fun! After changing clothes (DS & I were pretty wet!) we headed over to Epcot for the evening. We got to the park around 4:30 and headed over to Mission Space then Nemo before our dinner reservation at the Garden Grill. We were able to get an outside table, and the food & characters were great here too. Again though, we waited for refills & dessert took forever. We were able to make it out in time to catch Illuminations which we watched from Canada. After the show, we headed straight for Soarin. The wait was only about 30 minutes, & afterwards we did Living with the Land. After that we went over to ride Test Track & Mission Space one more time (you can tell this is DS favorite ride!) before leaving the park.

Day 8, January 10 - Magic Kingdom
Again we opted for the late arrival to the parks as this seemed to work well for us. We hit the pool at about 10:30. While the boys swam, I went to the General Store to get some souvenirs. Then I got in the pool for a bit. We got to the MK around 12:30. Headed over to get fastpasses for the Jungle Cruise and then took the rafts to Tom Sawyer Island. This was our first time visiting this attraction, and I can't believe we've missed out on it all this time. We enjoyed exploring here. When we got back to the boat dock, we were able to get another fastpass, so we grabbed FP's for BTMRR before going to ride the Jungle Cruise. We headed to eat lunch at the Columbia Harbour House. I got the Fish & Chicken combo & Apple Crisp for dessert, DH & DS got the chicken & chocolate cakes. Then it was time for our FP for BTMRR. After this, the parade was blocking the roadway, so we watched from the bridge. We headed back over to Tomorrowland for one more ride on Buzz & the TTA. Then we went to take a ride on the train at Main Street and happened upon the Flag Retreat again. This time the Christmas tree was gone and it was even more beautiful with the castle shining in the background. We rode the train all the way around the park and then decided the boys wanted some drums they had seen in Epcot. We took the monorail over (got to ride in the front) and darted back to the Outpost to pick up the drums. Headed back out of the park to get back to our 8:10 ADR at Ohana. We got to Ohana by 7:40 and were seated quickly. We were able to see Wishes from our table. Dinner here was our favorite as usual. We were completely stuffed afterwards and the dessert was most incredible!!!! After dinner we walked back to the TTC to catch a tram to the parking lot. Back at the room it was time to pack up as we were getting an early start to head home in the morning.

Day 9, January 11 - Travel Day
We awoke at 4:50am to shower and load the car. We got the car loaded (barely, it was crammed!) and were out of the room by 6:15. Since it was so early, our paperwork wasn't on the door yet, so we stopped by the front desk to check out. Then grabbed some cinnamon rolls & muffins from the bakery for the road. On the road by 6:30 am. Got to hear some of the Marathon festivities while we were loading the car & saw some fireworks. Also got to see the runners as we were leaving the resort. What a beautiful sight! There were so many of them! Traffic wasn't difficult to maneuver with the road closures, but we did have to take an alternate route to get back to the Interstate. We made it home by 3:30pm to make for really great travel time, which included 2 bathroom stops & a lunch stop! Were able to get unpacked, laundry done & get pictures posted on my facebook page before going to bed. Time to get back to the real world, back to school & work the next day! Another great trip to Disney for us!!!!

[mouseketeer mom]

That sounds like a fantastic trip. You guys just went with the flow and it worked out great. Renting Kayaks sounds interesting..did you do that at POR? Thanks for the report!

[jonah'smom]

Yes, we did rent the kayaks at POR. We rented two for a half hour. One 2 person & one single. They were the same price for each one, and I think we spent $13. You can take them around Ol Man Island where there are no big boats if you aren't comfortable in them, or you can go down to Old Key West where the bigger boats are if you like. We stayed around the island since it was our first time. Beautiful scenery and very relaxing.

[yjgirl32]

Great trip report! Sounds like you guys had a great time! Thanks for sharing.

[faline]

What a fun trip! Thanks for sharing it with us!

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the Report!

[Bethis26fan]

Sounds like a great trip.

[yourmagicalguide]

What a great report! Thanks so much for sharing. I remember eating at a few restaurants at Crossroads when my family was starting to get tired of the quick service food. We usually stayed at a resort on Palm Parkway, so many breakfasts and dinners were had in the Crossroad area over the years.

[KylesMom]

It sounds like your family members are true veterans with all of the park-hopping you were able to do. While a few crowds seemed heavy, it sounds like it was light for the most part & you were able to do so much.

Thanks for sharing!