Doing Disney Done.

[Moosebunk]

MICKEY, MINNIE, MOOSE & THE BUNKS.

 

 

 

My parents took their time and drove to Florida.

 

 

We took no time and flew. Air Canada actually... and things went smoothly for once.

 

Daytona Beach...

 

 

 

Day 1. Getting There.

 

On the flight I watched "Yes Man." It was a good flick.

 

In Orlando we had an early supper at Red Lobster. Considering this is where the franchise began, it's since been left lagging behind by Canadian standards.

 

 

Day 2. Disney's Animal Kingdom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer (10 years old) and I (older) at the end of the trip decided to rate the rides we went on and shows we attended at all the parks. The scale is between 1 and 5 and we pretty much agreed on everything.

 

1. Not worth stopping, keep trucking.

2. Worth checking out, time permitting.

3. Good fun for all.

4. Great fun, don't miss it.

5. Wicked awesome, the bestest time.

 

While we were at Disney it was Easter Weekend and spring break for some of Florida's schools. At a couple parks we missed some of the primo attractions due to time or crowds.

 

Disney's Animal Kingdom. This was the quietest park for us. We did much of what we wanted to in a matter of about 6 hours but had an early start to beat the building crowds. Time could have been stretched to take in a couple things or do some rides twice. This was a great park for those kids that haven't been to a zoo or haven't been to one in a long time. Also, there are a number of kickass attractions or rides with Animal Kingdom.

 

Expedition Everest - Roller Coaster.... 4

Kilimanjaro Safari - Vehicle thru Game Reserve.... 4

Kali River Rapids - Water Ride.... 3

Maharaj Jungle Trek - Walking/Animal Observation.... 3

Dinosaur - Vehicle/Simulator Ride.... 5

Tough To Be A Bug - 3D Movie Ride.... 4

 

Ate at Ruby Tuesday's that night. Much like a Kelsey's. Good Food.

 

 

Day 3. MGM's Hollywood Studios.

 

 

 

 

 

We didn't take too many pics this day... more videos actually. Some would argue this is Disney's best park, other's would likely lean to Magical Kingdom. Anyways, MGM is not one to miss. If only planning one day at Disney during a trip to Florida; and the kids are taller than 40 inches, then this is the park to go to in my opinion. Loaded with shows and rides get there as early as possible and expect to arrive home at 11:00pm at the earliest. The crowds on our day were busy but things went really smooth.

 

FASTPASS: all the really big ticket rides have a system called FastPass. You can only pick up so many FastPasses for rides at a time, and only every 2 hours will they be issued, your first pass will tell you when you may get a next one. FastPass gives you a scheduled 1 hour time period to return to the ride. This way, no waiting in line. With FastPass when you return at your designated time you will wait no more than 10 minutes. Standby lines without FastPass can vary anywhere between 5 minute to 2.5 hour waits. FastPass is great. Upon entering the park in the morning have a couple of your favorite planned rides in mind, go get your FastPasses first, then go about your day.

 

The Great Movie Ride - Nostalgic Ride.... 2

Indiana Jones Stunt Show - Special Effects and Stunts.... 3

Star Tours - 3D Star Wars Simulator Ride.... 3

Muppet Vision - 3D Show.... 3

Lights, Motor, Action - Car/Bike Stunt Show.... 4

Beauty & The Beast - Stage Show.... 3

Aerosmith's Rock N' Roller Coaster.... 5

FANTASMIC - Fireworks & Light Show.... 5

Twilight Zone's Tower of Terror - (like DropZone but inside).... 3

 

We missed "Toy Story 4D," by 11:00am all FastPasses were gone for the day.

 

 

Day 4. SEAWORLD.

 

My father's favorite Florida Fun Park, trumping all Disney and Universal Parks. My folks treat to us, we took a break from Disney. We weren't disappointed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our SeaWorld day we were in the park by about 9:30am. Eight hours later we had taken in everything except their main water ride attraction and the new roller coaster opening soon. SeaWorld's shows and rides were a real hit with all of us, and the exhibits were good as well.

 

KRAKEN - Roller Coaster.... 5 (as good or better than any Disney coaster ride)

Believe - Killer Whale Show Shamu.... 5

Blue Horizons - Dolphin and Stunt Show.... 5

Clyde and Seamore Take Pirate Island - Sea Otter, Walrus and Sealion Show.... 4

Exhibits - Aquariums and wildlife viewing.... 3

MANTA - Roller Coaster.... coming soon.

 

That night we ate dinner at an Italian Restaurant called Pacino's. Pricey but wicked good food. I had the rack of lamb and it was sooooo succulent and full of meat... magnificent.

 

 

Day 5. Belz Center, Ron Jon's, Bass Pro, Mini Putt and Cici's

 

 

 

Very briefly... Florida shopping is more expensive than Canadian. I bought some sale items and got a great new Columbia rainsuit, bibs and jacket. Ron Jon's only clothing line stuff was cheaper than the name brands so I picked up a chapeau and shorts. Bass Pro was a HUGE disappointment.

 

For dinner it was Cici's. A chain of all you can eat pizza for $5.99. This place was great.

 

 

Day 6. Disney's Epcot.

 

 

 

 

 

Tornado and storm warnings in the morning meant we laid low until finally getting into Epcot around 1:00pm. EVERYONE was already there when we arrived and many big ride FastPasses were nearly taken up for the day. Epcot is a little older a park and so my daughter Leah (5) was kind of left in wonder with some of the attractions. This is considered a "world showcase" featuring flavors and life of many countries. They've also added some new and awesome rides since I was there 20 years ago. Unfortunately, we missed 3 of 4 of the biggys.

 

SpaceShip Earth - Roller Coaster.... 4

Ellen's Energy Adventure - Educational Imax Ride Thru Time.... 3

Mission Space - Simulator Mission to Mars.... Missed it.

Soarin - Free Falling ride.... Missed it.

Test Track - Disney's Fastest Roller Coaster.... Missed it.

Living with the Land - Educational horticulture ride.... 3

Honey I Shrunk The Audience - 3D Movie.... 3

World Showcase - Walking tour of the countries.... 4

Illuminations - Fireworks.... 4

 

 

Day 7. Magical Kingdom.

 

 

 

 

 

You can see in the first pic what an absolute zoo this park is. Our timing was poor though. The day before people had held back from Magical Kingdom because of the weather warnings so... next day they came flooding in.

 

Magical Kingdom is the original. It's Disney. It's the kids park of all parks. Older kids might like MGM better but this is for all the little Disney lovers. It does however hold alot of appeal for adults as well. We arrived around 11:00pm and were already too late to grab FastPasses for newer rides like Peter Pan's Flight and Pooh's Adventure. Expect 8:00am to midnight day if you want to get it all in. Pictures for the kids with Disney characters have line-ups 1 to 2 hours long.

 

Stitches Great Escape - Spinning Theater Ride.... 1

Space Mountain - Roller Coaster.... 4

Buzz Light Year - Interactive Intergalactic Shoot'em Up ride.... 4

Tomorrowland Speedway - Go Carts.... Missed it, looked lame.

Carousel Of Progress - Tour ride.... 1 (Bren did it, it sucked)

Mickey's Philharmagic - 3D theater ride.... 3

Haunted Mansion - Spooks and thrills.... Missed it.

Big Thunder Mountain - tame Roller Coaster.... Missed it.

Splash Mountain - Water ride.... 5

Jungle Cruise - boat ride through plastic jungle.... 1

Parade of Lights - Parade.... 4

WISHES - Castle Fireworks.... 5

 

 

Day 8. Disney's Typhoon Lagoon.

 

Disney has two waterfun parks, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach. We chose the Lagoon. This was Summer's favorite day of any. It's endless waterfun and rides all day. She and I picked our favorites....

 

 

Humunga Kowabunga

Crush N' Gusher

Storm Slides

 

End of the day we ate at a place called Joe's Crab Shack. Stellar seafood. Blow yer freaking mind crab cakes and other buttered crustaceans.

 

 

Day 9. Poolside, Mini-Putt, Flea Markets Take It Easy Day.

 

We stayed in a Windsor Hills Condo with VillaDirect. It was perfect, roomy and great for our group of 6 being that it had a big bunk for the girls, and two king beds in two large master bedrooms, ours with an ensuite bath. We were 5-10 minutes from the main gates at Disney's Parks. Tonnes of restaurants, shops and conveniences along West Irlo Bronson Hwy 192, and, easy access to Orlando, the airport and International Drive and other theme parks.

 

Many, many, many vacancies at major hotels there. $29.99 to $49.99 a night for alot of them. The hotels are hurting due to the economy and home/condo properties. Tonnes of cheap buffet places to eat too.

 

Things I didn't like in the U.S.

 

ESPN

Toll Routes

Yuppies, and especially idiots with strollers and kids too young for the parks.

Oversized carry-on baggage

Merchandise Prices.

Red Lobster

 

Things I did like down there...

 

Traffic... very good considering.

Pacino's and Joe's restaurants.

FASTPASS

Sunshine/Weather/Lack of Snow.

Orlando Airport.

Denny's breakfasts X5 while there.

 

I'd say as far as Disney's Parks go, Hollywood Studios and Magical Kingdom are the must do's. Epcot and Animal Kingdom are great but not the main draws. Although, Dinosaur could very well have been mine and Summer's favorite ride.

 

Kids need to be 40 inches tall to get on most rides. Don't waste time and money taking toddlers as it won't make the trip a good family experience. Man, we saw alot of miserable folks, whiney impatient little ones and couples arguing because of stressing out. We felt we had it perfect and my girls never complained once.

 

Universal Studios' two parks are supposedly even better than Disney's main parks. Just not enough time this trip to get it done. Would have needed 3 more days, 2 for those parks and one for the rest. Big rides there.

 

 

On our last night we ate one more time at Pacino's.

 

 

Been there, bought the T-Shirt, good family spoiling. Was the best time I think the kids have ever had doing anything.

[irishfield]

What a great family outing Drew.!!!!

 

Now who's the scared'est...

 

[Joey]

Nice accounting of your trip Drew. I went there once when I was young with my parents, it was fun.

 

Love all your pictures and your rating system. Looks like you got the most of your time there and everyone looks happy in every shot. I love the look on your wife and daughter's face in the Splash Mountain pic, ha ha ha.

 

Thanks for sharing with us.

 

Joey

[bigugli]

What? No fishing report

 

Orlando is 25% water. I always pack a rod to toss a few casts before anyone else gets up.

 

Glad you had a blast. Too bad you missed Soarin.

[Leecher]

Never been to Disney land before..... thanks for taking me along Drew

Awesome

Glad the kids enjoyed it.... including you LOL

 

Thanks again Drew!!!

Jacques

[Whitespinnerbait]

One hasn't lived until one has been to Disneyland with the Kids....

 

 

Brings back memories from 2000 when we took the kids down , we had the time of our life...

[bigugli]

One hasn't lived until one has been to Disneyland with the Kids....

 

Amen to that. We've loved every trip we took to the 'House of Mouse' .

[Cudz]

Great pics as usual.

We went down at Christmas for the first time. I have 3 daughters and they all dressed up in princess outfits. Made a day of it at Magic Kingdom. Was there from 10am until 10 pm. It was great but not something you want to do every year. Try the crowds at Christmas. Wow. But they don't hold back anything on their fireworks at Disney during Christmas. Never seen anything like it in my life.

[Radnine]

Another awesome report! Thanks for taking us along.

Jim

[Skud]

Great report. Amazing pics as usual. Would you mind telling us what camera you have? I am looking to upgrade soon.

[John]

Great report Drew...We were there in November and pretty much agree on everything. We stayed at Windsor Hills too, great place, magnificent pool and hot tub with it's own movie theatre.

Sea World without a doubt was our favorite, with Hollywood Studios a close second. Also depends on the ages of the kids. Couldn't get my Grandson away from the stingray petting pool.

Food in general, in my opinion was expensive and mediocre at best unless you go to familiar chains like Ruby Tuesdays.

[Rich Clemens]

Good Stuff Andrew. Been many years since I've been there. I was fortunate to my grandparents living in Orlando, so we always had a place to stay. We went quite a few times when my daughter was little and would spend the entire day there. Talk about being totally wiped out by the end of the day.

 

Pretty big temperature variance from what yer used to eh ?

[Moosebunk]

Pretty big temperature variance from what yer used to eh ?

 

Icefishing monday on Kesagami Lake, packing tuesday, skidooing off the island and flying to TO wednesday to Orlando heat the thursday... Coming home and in two days experiencing the reverse. Loved the heat... felt refreshing the whole ordeal.

 

 

Skud... it's not an expensive camera... it's a Lumix. Does the job I want.

 

John... great minds think alike.

 

My daughter Summer was pretty spooked before and during a number of the rides, but not more than her mother. Summer was ready to tackle them again the minute she got off most of them. lol.

 

Thanks for the replies. Knew there would be a few people who would appreciate and relive Disney a little with this report.