WDWRox
09-28-2008, 12:38 PM
Phew! Here I am recovering from a previous day's worth of plane flights and airport layover waits and finally home after a solid night's rest......and already missing WDW. So here's how it all went down....the basic highlights:
It was me, my wife, and my sister who met up at Orlando Airport and took the Magical Express bus over to the Wilderness Lodge late afternoon on the 20th. I hadn't thought about it at the time, but we probably should have come in on a Sunday instead, because Magic Kingdom was pretty full when we first arrived there around 5:30 or 6:00.
My only real disappointment with Magic Kingdom (which lasted throughout the week) was with all of the (IMO) idiotic Halloween decorations that were scattered about, as well as the (again, IMO) stupid "Mickey's Not-so-Scary Halloween Party" junk that they had going at least 2 nights out of the week that closed the park to the rest of us. Come on....it's not even October and they're pushing that Halloween garbage on us? Ok, so we had to deal with that mess, but it wasn't that bad considering we were able to see and do everything we wanted to in each of the parks during our stay. Wait times were almost always minimal for the MK attractions we took in. I'm sure this week we rode Space Mountain about 30 times, Buzz Lightyear at least 15-20, Haunted Mansion 2-3 times, PoTC about 3 times, and so on.
We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge, as mentioned, and we had a courtyard view that was very nice and very impressive. It overlooked the entire pool area, and every night around 9:30 (like clockwork) we could see the Electrical Water Pageant. It was nice to see, but I noticed that they've not changed that thing at all since my last WDW trip about 2 years ago. We were on free dining all week long and took advantage of the free snacks, and our table service meals consisted of just a Crystal Palace breakfast, 'Ohana dinner, and a San Angel Inn dinner. The rest of the time we took good advantage of a special they were running from August 24 - Sept 27, where if you were on the dining plan and used a table-service credit at a counter service location, you would be given a coupon good for 2 free snacks to be used anywhere (but both had to be used at once) OR you could get a mesh bag from any of the merchandise locations listed on the back of the card. So needless to say, we used a lot of snacks, pretty much every option we had including the ones thrown in with the regular plan.
I do, however, have to be critical about the training that the cast members were given on those particular coupons. I know the use of them is a very rare, if ever, occurrence, but on at least 2 occasions, we went to redeem a coupon and the concession people were clueless on what it was. The back of the coupon listed off where you could redeem the ticket for merchandise, and the concession people kept trying to say those were the only places you could get SNACKS from. They were completely wrong. The second occasion was when my wife and sister went to the candy store on Main Street to use one of the coupons for some fudge......and the manager on the inside was very rude with them, and argued with them (when the little price marker next to the fudge flavors had a clearly-displayed Snack Option logo next to it) that it wasn't usable there. Eventually it worked, but he didn't apologize at all and it really irritated my wife the rest of the evening.
We also hit Animal Kingdom multiple times, usually just for Expedition Everest and Dinosaur. For EE, we had to use Fastpasses multiple times, and we also took advantage of the single rider line. For Dinosaur, the waits were minimal and I think we'd forgotten just how enjoyable that ride is. We also did "It's Tough to Be a Bug" once and Kilimanjaro Safaris once as well. Early in the week, it was at Animal Kingdom when the sky opened up and we were all drenched with rain and then had to walk back through it to get to the buses.
This time around, because of my wife's leg and feet problems, we rented a wheelchair. I got a length of stay ticket for it, which reduced the price a bit. It was rough on me to have to to push her up some of the steeper inclines, but it saved her a lot of wear and tear (including blisters and all sorts of other mess) on her feet. I wasn't sure how it would work, getting her on and off rides, but mainly we parked it out front with the other strollers and it was there when we got back (though sometimes moved by the cast members to free up room). I was concerned that possibly some kids or teens would run off with it and joyride around the park, but that never happened.
The one new attraction that we tried, Toy Story Mania, was a lot of fun. I won't say it's necessarily better than Buzz Lightyear as a ride in itself, but the herky/jerky spinning from one round to the next was better than Buzz. This ride had its Fastpasses FOR THE DAY all taken up by guests by around 12:00 each day. No joke. A few days ago we went to the Hollywood Studios, went right for Toy Story Mania around 9:45 or so, and when we got our Fastpasses, it wasn't usable until around 3:00 that afternoon. So we hit Tower of Terror a bunch of times, RnRC, and then went to Animal Kingdom for a while and came back to use the Fastpasses. The wait times for TSM was unreal....almost always 60 or 90 minutes whenever we passed by there.
There were other updated attractions that we specifically aimed for and caught....among them was Haunted Mansion. I caught the few updates here and there. The neverending staircases was a nice touch, as was the blinking eye bats and part of the wallpaper. I found the attic changes with the bride to not be all that great. I preferred it the way it had been before. On various WDW sites, I've seen a hidden Mickey tip state that the Grim Reaper in the cemetary scene makes the shape of a mickey head with his fingers. I rode Haunted Mansion several times during my trip and never saw any Grim Reaper or any other character make a mickey symbol with his hands. If anyone knows where it is, could you tell me? I looked all over.
It was me, my wife, and my sister who met up at Orlando Airport and took the Magical Express bus over to the Wilderness Lodge late afternoon on the 20th. I hadn't thought about it at the time, but we probably should have come in on a Sunday instead, because Magic Kingdom was pretty full when we first arrived there around 5:30 or 6:00.
My only real disappointment with Magic Kingdom (which lasted throughout the week) was with all of the (IMO) idiotic Halloween decorations that were scattered about, as well as the (again, IMO) stupid "Mickey's Not-so-Scary Halloween Party" junk that they had going at least 2 nights out of the week that closed the park to the rest of us. Come on....it's not even October and they're pushing that Halloween garbage on us? Ok, so we had to deal with that mess, but it wasn't that bad considering we were able to see and do everything we wanted to in each of the parks during our stay. Wait times were almost always minimal for the MK attractions we took in. I'm sure this week we rode Space Mountain about 30 times, Buzz Lightyear at least 15-20, Haunted Mansion 2-3 times, PoTC about 3 times, and so on.
We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge, as mentioned, and we had a courtyard view that was very nice and very impressive. It overlooked the entire pool area, and every night around 9:30 (like clockwork) we could see the Electrical Water Pageant. It was nice to see, but I noticed that they've not changed that thing at all since my last WDW trip about 2 years ago. We were on free dining all week long and took advantage of the free snacks, and our table service meals consisted of just a Crystal Palace breakfast, 'Ohana dinner, and a San Angel Inn dinner. The rest of the time we took good advantage of a special they were running from August 24 - Sept 27, where if you were on the dining plan and used a table-service credit at a counter service location, you would be given a coupon good for 2 free snacks to be used anywhere (but both had to be used at once) OR you could get a mesh bag from any of the merchandise locations listed on the back of the card. So needless to say, we used a lot of snacks, pretty much every option we had including the ones thrown in with the regular plan.
I do, however, have to be critical about the training that the cast members were given on those particular coupons. I know the use of them is a very rare, if ever, occurrence, but on at least 2 occasions, we went to redeem a coupon and the concession people were clueless on what it was. The back of the coupon listed off where you could redeem the ticket for merchandise, and the concession people kept trying to say those were the only places you could get SNACKS from. They were completely wrong. The second occasion was when my wife and sister went to the candy store on Main Street to use one of the coupons for some fudge......and the manager on the inside was very rude with them, and argued with them (when the little price marker next to the fudge flavors had a clearly-displayed Snack Option logo next to it) that it wasn't usable there. Eventually it worked, but he didn't apologize at all and it really irritated my wife the rest of the evening.
We also hit Animal Kingdom multiple times, usually just for Expedition Everest and Dinosaur. For EE, we had to use Fastpasses multiple times, and we also took advantage of the single rider line. For Dinosaur, the waits were minimal and I think we'd forgotten just how enjoyable that ride is. We also did "It's Tough to Be a Bug" once and Kilimanjaro Safaris once as well. Early in the week, it was at Animal Kingdom when the sky opened up and we were all drenched with rain and then had to walk back through it to get to the buses.
This time around, because of my wife's leg and feet problems, we rented a wheelchair. I got a length of stay ticket for it, which reduced the price a bit. It was rough on me to have to to push her up some of the steeper inclines, but it saved her a lot of wear and tear (including blisters and all sorts of other mess) on her feet. I wasn't sure how it would work, getting her on and off rides, but mainly we parked it out front with the other strollers and it was there when we got back (though sometimes moved by the cast members to free up room). I was concerned that possibly some kids or teens would run off with it and joyride around the park, but that never happened.
The one new attraction that we tried, Toy Story Mania, was a lot of fun. I won't say it's necessarily better than Buzz Lightyear as a ride in itself, but the herky/jerky spinning from one round to the next was better than Buzz. This ride had its Fastpasses FOR THE DAY all taken up by guests by around 12:00 each day. No joke. A few days ago we went to the Hollywood Studios, went right for Toy Story Mania around 9:45 or so, and when we got our Fastpasses, it wasn't usable until around 3:00 that afternoon. So we hit Tower of Terror a bunch of times, RnRC, and then went to Animal Kingdom for a while and came back to use the Fastpasses. The wait times for TSM was unreal....almost always 60 or 90 minutes whenever we passed by there.
There were other updated attractions that we specifically aimed for and caught....among them was Haunted Mansion. I caught the few updates here and there. The neverending staircases was a nice touch, as was the blinking eye bats and part of the wallpaper. I found the attic changes with the bride to not be all that great. I preferred it the way it had been before. On various WDW sites, I've seen a hidden Mickey tip state that the Grim Reaper in the cemetary scene makes the shape of a mickey head with his fingers. I rode Haunted Mansion several times during my trip and never saw any Grim Reaper or any other character make a mickey symbol with his hands. If anyone knows where it is, could you tell me? I looked all over.