More from Feb 8-15 trip

[bshaw96]

As posted below, we just got back from our adult only trip and learned lots of lessons. But this is pretty much the basics.
Arrived February 8th at Sanford-Orlando airport. Did not even think about it when we booked the tickets, but arrived at 4:30, just in time for 5pm Friday traffic, took us an hour to get to our offsite hotel in Kissimmee. Since it was late, we didn't do much that evening but settle into our rooms.
Saturday February 9th- Epcot- Unfortunately did not get to do SE as it was closed, but did ride Soarin (really neat) and Mission Space (slow side-I was chicken!) Tried to ride test track, but the line was 75 minutes long, we had used our FP for soarin, and just didn't want to wait that long. We were really surprised by the number of people, but with the beautiful temps, did not care! We took our time and strolled around World Showcase which we never really did with the kids, and I really enjoyed it. Lots of shows and shops the kids would have never tolerated. Wrapped it all up with Illuminations.
Sunday- Animal Kingdom-We love this park! First couple of times, hated it. But I think that was in part to the extreme heat and crowds. Still a heavy crowd, but again, no heat. We rode Dinosaur (which my eyes were closed mostly through!), Everest(absolutely wonderful ride!), safari ride, saw a bug's life, and enjoyed the animal trails. I love birds and we got some amazing close up shots of birds just walking around freely.
Monday-Magic Kingdom - I really don't feel like I'm at WDW until I'm riding the monorail to MK. Crowds were more than expected, but bearable. Had to FP everything. We rode POTC, Haunted Mansion, Thunder, took a loop around the park on the train, and rode the boat around the harbor. Also did the Tom Sawyer Island thing (OK, but not much fun for me- kids would've loved it). Had dinner, shopped, and watched the Spectromagic parade and watched Wishes (I feel just like a kid when watching this!)
Tuesday-MGM-Virtually no crowds in park- rode Star Wars where the dream team gave us all dream FP for the day, didn't really need them with low crowds, but neat to win. Watched the HSM parade and show, rode TOT,and Rockn Roller Coast. At this point it started raining, so we just caught some shows and headed back to our room. Wanted to catch Fantasmic, but wasn't feeling the best in the world that day, and just saw it last year, so we opted not to stay.
Wednesday- Did some shopping in Orlando, then went to MK for a couple of hours that evening to catch Wishes again Were able to ride Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, and take a spin on the transportation ride (don't know the name-the blue cars that ride around space mountain-nice and relaxing) Then we took a spin around the lagoon on the monorail before leaving.
Thursday-Another MK day-finished up the rides and got our pic taken with Mickey Visited the mainstreet bakery (can't believe I've never been in there before!) and gained 2 pounds. Then we resort hopped and checked out AKL, Polynesian, POFQ/POR, and the campground.
All in all it was an amazing time. And I absolutely hated to come home. We're now planning a 2009 trip to DL. Not WDW I know, but we want to say we've been at least once!

[RoosMomKanga]

We (trip reports "Just Us") were there in the middle of your trip 10-12 at the parks, so it's been fun to read your perspective. We weren't at the same parks/same days, but we were also surprised by the number of people (especially MK on Sun am).

We had to leave Tues. afternoon, but I was wondering what happened at the parks with the rain and tornado warnings (I take it you saw the tornado damage at Cocoa Beach on TV)...I didn't hear anything about park closuers, but I guess they couldn't close every time there's a T. Warning.

We used the single rider line on some things (also ran into long Standby wait times- like TT) and that worked well for us...DH was in the car right behind me on TT and he rode RnRC 3x with almost no wait.

It's wonderful to have an adult trip isn't it...glad you had fun!

[Bethis26fan]

Sounds like a great trip. Thanks for sharing.

[karenrarintogo]

DH and I were at WDW at the same time as you guys above--we were there from Feb 7-12. We went to AK on Sunday the 10th--wow, was it busy there, too. We got on the Safari with a FP early afternoon...later found out via the news that the Safari was closed later in the afternoon due to a fire in one of th jeeps. It said the Safari reopened on Mon. Glad we got through a very enjoyable Safari w/o a problem!
I remember late Friday afternoon that SE at Epcot was going down on Sat., so we raced over there and rode it, as we also missed it last Sept. due to it's closing. Really enjoyed the changes!
We have done the single rider line at TT for the last several visits as the standby wait is always long and Soarin' get the bow for most important FP at Epcot. Love the single rider line, but others have learned this secret, as our wait was the longest it's ever been this time--15 min.
I'd love to go back tomorrow-as we are expecting at least 6 inches of snow tonight (AGAIN!). Wow--what a winter for us in MI.
Thanks again for your trip report! It's fun reading and reminiscing.

[RedheadWriter]

Great report!

[dolphinmickey9170]

Sounds like fun....thanks for sharing.

[AbeeNormal]

I think I can gain two pounds in that bakery just by inhaling too hard.

Thanks so much for sharing your trip.

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the report!

[ChipnDaleGal]

Too bad the parks were a little more crowded than you expected, but it still sounds like you two had a really relaxing and wonderful trip. Thank you for sharing.

[princessgirls]

Thanks for sharing your wonderful trip.

Julie

[faline]

Despite sharing the park with more people than you expected, you clearly had a wonderful time!

I agree - it's just really a Disney World Trip until you're headed to the Magic Kingdom!