WDW, Disney Cruise, Disneyland Trip 2013

[KeithS]

13 March 2013 – Animal Kingdom
Today was our first organised Disney tour – the Wild Africa Trek in the Animal Kingdom. It was a very cold morning, but we got up on time, had breakfast and headed to the park. When we got there, we checked in with Laura near the front gate and she directed us back to the Kilimanjaro Safari area where we had to locker everything except our camera, and then we donned considerable harness and communication equipment before meeting our two guides Jason and Paul who were brilliant and funny.

We headed out along the Pangani Trail before finally turning to a secret side path where the real trek began. The side path was rough and took us to an overhang over a hippo pool. Here, we were harnassed to a running line so we could go right to the edge without falling in! Another tour guide joined us there and fed the hippo for us and answered any question we could think of – it was a great experience.

Next we moved towards the crocodile area and that involved negotiating two high rope bridges. Again the harnesses came into use as we were clipped up and sent one at a time across the bridges. I went last so it gave me plenty of time to speak with the guides alone and they really were top blokes. Walking high over the crocodiles was an amazing experience! Again at the other end of the bridge, we were hooked up on a rig so we could approach the drop off over the crocodile pit. There were quite a crocs lying around – and these were big crocs!

After that, we headed to a pick up point on the savannah where we removed our harnesses and jumped aboard a truck. We basically followed the Kilimanjaro Safari route through the savannah, but we would pull over in side paths to get a longer and closer look at various animals. We stopped near giraffes, elephants, big cats etc. We then pulled into a picnic area on the Savannah and had lunch in the sunshine – how surreal! The lunch was traditional Kenyan foods and they were delicious, even Della loved it.

We did a few more animal stops after lunch, but all to soon it came to an end and we picked up our stuff from the locker. We highly recommend this tour to anyone going to Animal Kingdom.

Afterwards, we headed to Expedition Everest and picked up a Fastpass before going to Finding Nemo the Musical – I hadn’t seen this before and was very impressed by the production.

After the show, we went to Dinoland and got a Fastpass for Dinosaur before having an ice cream. We then went back to the front of the park to locker extra stuff we were carrying before looking through some shops. The Dinosaur FP came due first and we took the ride. I always find that ride a little too dark, but it is still a lot of fun.

Before heading to Everest, we found a spot for the parade which is quite long. It is the same parade as in 2006 – Mickeys Jammin’ Jungle Parade. Once it was completed, we zipped over to Everest and used our FP for the ride – and this time, Della did see the big yeti, yay!

Following Everest, we took the Maharaja Trail before finally having dinner at the Yak and Yeti Restaurant. Yak and Yeti was great, Della had the crispy honey chicken, and I had the baby back ribs. With that done, it was close to park closing, so we headed to the front, picked up our lockered gear, then headed back home for the night.

[KeithS]

14 March 2013 – Downtown Disney
Today, I awoke feeling a lot better, but now Della has the cold. We had today planned as a relax day and maybe a swim, but when we awoke, it was freezing and a predicted top of just 16! It was beautifully sunny and clear, just cold! Della wanted to get some Sudafed from a pharmacist so we enquired at the front desk and they suggested getting a tai from Downtown Disney to the nearby Walgreens. We headed over to Downtown Disney, found a taxi driver who was happy to take us, but when we got to Walgreens, they refused to sell the Sudafed without seeing our passports! Arrggghhhh, they wouldn’t accept our drivers licence.

So we went back to Downtown, had lunch at the Earl of Sandwich and Ghirardelli then went back to our resort to pick up our passports and do the trip all again. This time, the taxi driver to us to a different Walgreens, and guess what? They didn’t want our passport, the driver’s licence was fine – arrrghhh! Anyway, that sorted, we spent the rest of the afternoon at Downtown Disney going through all the shops. I bought a set of Christmas Mickey ears for Buzzard at the Christmas shop, and Della got another fluffy, but in general we didn’t spend a lot today.

We headed back to the resort when the sun went down and had dinner in the food court. Tomorrow is a big day – we have the all-day Backstage Magic Tour that we are really looking forward too.

[churros]

Glad to hear you are back on deck Keith and I hope Della's cold passes soon!

[ColinA]

12 March 2013 – Downtown Disney/Magic Kingdom

While we were waiting for main meals, we asked if we could speak to Becky who is Colin’s friend. She came over to our table and was absolutely gorgeous – a nicer person you’ll never meet! We got a group photo together and also a group photo with our server (and the Beast!) and then made our way out of the park for the evening (dodging the Main Street Electrical Parade.) Two thumbs up for the Be Our Guest restaurant!

I got the report from Becky, said you were both nice!

Experiences like this make the dining much more enjoyable.

[KeithS]

15 March 2013 – Backstage Magic/Epcot
Today is the big all day tour known as Backstage Magic. We knew it would be a big day and had to get up extra early to ensure breakfast and enough time to get the Epcot for the start. It was dark when we went to breakfast with sunrise around 7:15am at the moment. It was still cold this morning, but the day promised to be a little warmer.

We got to Epcot around 8:15 and met a few of the others on the tour. The guides, Mark and Holly came shortly afterwards and we got our name tags and ticked off our registrations. We were then directed onto a Disney Cruise Line bus which was ours for the whole day. We were handed a radio and earpiece, as well as safety goggles and the bus departed for the backstage area of Epcot’s World Showcase. We were then divided into two groups and our group had Holly as our guide and she was wonderful. The first thing we looked at the animatronic pit under The American Adventure. It was amazing to see how all the set pieces fitted together and popped up on cue. We then walked around looking at the architecture of the American Adventure pavilion from the outside, before heading back to the bus and making our way to the next destination.

We went on the Disney’s Hollywood Studio next and visited the costuming section. This was amazing as we saw them making new costumes for Monsters University which will soon be worn by Sulley in the parks. They were also making new costumes for Princess Sofia character for the parks and cruise ships. There were tonnes of other things we looked at such as the fabric library (over 10,000 samples!) and the computerised laser cutting machine that made perfect cuts in the fabric.

Leaving the costume area, we headed over behind the Tower of Terror and had a close up look at the workshops where they were maintaining one of the ride vehicles. We got a close up view of how they worked and how Tower of Terror in Orlando operates.

Next up we took the bus over to Animal Kingdom to see the greens department for the resort which included seeing how all the hanging plants are prepared months in advance for all the parks. We also saw where the topiaries are made and prepared – it was a fun stop, especially for all the amateur gardeners!

We then moved on to the storage area for Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Parade. We got up close with all the parade vehicles and some of the secrets of these vehicles.

Next we headed to Wilderness Lodge for lunch of ribs, chicken, sausage, corn and desserts – it was all yummy.

Next it over to the Magic Kingdom. First we entered the park through a cast member entrance and did a tour of Main Street before watching the parade from a private area. Then after the parade, we headed backstage again and went downstairs into the park’s Utilidors – the underground passages that cast members use to travel around the park. This underground network is immense, with training areas, stock rooms, costuming, pin swap areas, and many many more functions, it was fascinating.

After spending a long time in the utilidors, we finally headed upstairs and back on the bus for the return trip to Epcot. We were given a Backstage Magic pin and we got photos with our guides and then we said our goodbyes. Della and I then headed into Epcot for the evening, beginning with a ride on Spaceship Earth. We then headed over to the Seas with Nemo and Friends and rode the attraction. We then took a good look around before heading over to World Showcase to grab dinner at the UK pavilion (fish and chips of course). We also sat in the courtyard to listen to British Revival rock band who were great.

After eating, we grabbed a spot on the water for Illuminations and sat back to watch the show – and this time, Della didn’t fall asleep through it! After the show, we shuffled out the park and headed home for the night.

[KeithS]

16 March 2013 – Magic Kingdom
Normal morning today, but dinner was booked for this evening at Cinderella’s Royal Banquet which we were both looking forward to. After a quick breakfast, we hopped on the bus to Magic Kingdom.

Once through the doors, our first stop was to do a full circle tour of the Magic Kingdom on the Railroad – our traditional day one Magic Kingdom ride. After that, we headed into Adventureland and Pirates of the Caribbean. We still prefer the Disneyland version of this ride, but the Jack Sparrow treasure scene at the end is pretty impressive. We grabbed a fastpass for Jungle Cruise and hopped on Jasmine’s flying carpet. Next up was a walkthrough of Swiss Family Treehouse. We then grabbed a quick ice cream before going for our Jungle Cruise run. We completed Adventureland with a sit through of the Enchanted Tiki Room.

Next we wondered down Main Street to see if we could see Mr & Mrs Easter Bunny but we never saw them so we went through all the shops in lots of detail. We were going to check out some theatre shows, but time was running against us, so we just sat for a while to tick off time until our dinner with Cinderella. Soon enough, the time for us came to check in and we were ushered into the presence of Cinderella herself. We got a photo with her then waited for the name to be called. Eventually, they called our party and we made our way upstairs in the castle to the dining room and found our seat. We were give a wand (Della) and a sword (me) along with menus for dinner. I had the tomato basil soups appetizer (Della the cheese selection); mains we both had the beef, and dessert we both had the trio selection. The food was terrific. But of course, it was the Princesses we were there for! We met Snow White, Jasmine, Aurora, and Ariel – that’s lots of Princess action!

We finished our meal around 9pm and headed out of the castle. The whole castle was roped off in anticipation of the night’s fireworks etc, so we were completely by ourselves when we stepped out of the castle, looking down Main Street – and in front of us, coming up Main Street was the Electrical Parade! So we stood on the Castle’s forecourt to watch the Parade pass in front of us – it was awesome! At the very end of the parade, cast members asked us to leave the castle area due to the projection show about to commence, so we made our way down from the castle to the hub and watched the wonderful projection show, which was immediately followed by Wishes fireworks! So we ended up having a wonderful night.

Straight after the fireworks, we joined the mass-crush heading out of the park and back to the resort.

[KeithS]

17 March 2013 – Disney Hollywood Studios
We headed over to Hollywood Studios today to knock over the remaining attractions from this park. Once through the gate, we purchased a locker before looking for attractions. First stop was to get a fastpass for Star Tours before hitting the backlot tour. I had on the outside during the tour so I managed to get wet. We noted that this time, they didn’t pull people out of the audience for the Pearl Harbour battle at the start, they just demonstrated the special effects without getting people from the audience.

After the tour, we went straight back to Star Tours for our ride which was terrific – I really enjoy the new Star Tours. We had lunch after Star Tours at the ABC Commissary and also picked up fast passes for Toy Story Mania.

We grabbed a spot on the parade route for the Pixar Parade which was a variation of a parade we’d seen in DCA. It was a great parade and Della loved seeing Lotso.

After the parade, we headed into One Man’s Dream for a while until it was time to head over to see the Beauty and the Beast stage show which was great (Gaston was hilarious!). After that, we jumped straight on to Tower of Terror as the wait time was down to 20 minutes. We love this version of Tower – easily the best one around. We were with a bunch of first timers, and they just screamed! Della sat next to this bikie-looking guy and he started freaking out when the elevator started moved forward, never mind the drops! The ride photo was hilarious with the tattooed biker holding the panic handles tightly and looking terrified!

We grabbed a fast pass for Rockin Roller Coaster before heading down to The Legend of Jack Sparrow which is a new attraction. This is a short theatre presentation using movie projections and some very nice set dressing to put the audience through a couple of scenarios featuring special effects. Not a great new attraction, but it has the real Johnny Depp as Captain Jack and he is really funny.

We grabbed a hot chocolate and chocolate cake in the Farmer’s Market before using our Fastpass for Rockin Roller Coaster. I forgot how fast that launch is on that coaster – it is totally brilliant.

Next up, it was time for our fast pass for Toy Story Mania so we headed on down there. I really like the WDW queue line for this – it is much better than the DCA queue. The ride is essentially the same, but it is a lot of fun!

Following Toy Story, we grabbed all our gear out of the locker then headed over to Fantasmic for the show. We got there with about 45 minutes to go, and got excellent seats – no one sat in front of us so we had a clear view. Fantasmic is pretty good here, but it does rely on a long water screen projection phase. I like the Pocahontas section as that is unique to WDW, but the Disneyland version will always be the better show with how they use Columbia and the Mark Twain.

We joined the big exodus after Fantasmic and got the bus back to the resort – another big day over.

[ajp]

Great reports Keith, keep them coming. That backstage tour sounds very worthwhile, I might check that out next time we get over there.

but the Disneyland version will always be the better show with how they use Columbia and the Mark Twain.

I agree with this. The DHS version is great that it is in a special purpose arena but the DL show overall is a better show.

[ColinA]

The Backstage Magic Tour is well worth the cost. When we went about 6 years ago we had lunch at Mama Melrose, also saw the sets of American Adventure, they could not answer my technical questions about the animation control, think I knew more than them, it was interesting that the costumes get changed often, we went through the Christmas decoration storage area, workshop area, flower shop and the costume making area. We went into the MK storage area for Spectromagic which was excellent to see.

[KeithS]

18 March 2013 – Typhoon Lagoon
Woke up this morning with no plan, so we went to breakfast and then did some shopping in the resort. We then decided we try one of the water parks today as the temperature was going up. We decided to go to Typhoon Lagoon today, but before we caught the bus, we just decided to check up on the Segway Tour and it was confirmed that it had be cancelled, so we know not to go to Epcot early tomorrow.

We caught the bus and it went to the water park via Downtown Disney. When we arrived at the lagoon, we took a quick stroll through the park and amazed at all the details around – it really looked fantastic.

We grabbed a locker and some towels and headed to the river that encircles the park. It is full of tyre tube-like floatation devices, so we jumped on one each and did two complete laps of the river! That alone took a couple of hours. We then headed to the giant wave pool and leapt right in. It was hilarious waiting for the next big wave to come as it made a really loud noise, then everyone started screaming before the wave actually struck. After playing there for a while, we grabbed some hot dogs for a late lunch before going for another walk around the park.

Della then decided to buy some new swimwear from the surf shop. Soon enough, it was 4pm so we decided to head back to the resort. We got back, rinsed all our clothes and then headed to the food court for dinner. It was a more relaxing day, but it was still tiring. Tomorrow we are heading to Epcot.

[churros]

You sound like you are having a fantastic time!

[KeithS]

You sound like you are having a fantastic time!

You can say that again! It is terrific over here

19 March 2013 – Epcot
We got up early this morning with the plan to finish all the Epcot attractions and also to have our lunch at the Coral Sea Restaurant. So after breakfast, we hopped on the bus and headed to the park.

Once we got there, we headed to locker rental first of all to store all our cold weather gear for later – we didn’t need it in the end because the day was pretty hot and the promised rain/storms today didn’t eventuate – it was just another beautiful day.

First attraction this morning was Mission Space – the orange lane of course. It seemed a bit more intense than the last time I rode it, but that’s probably because I still have a bit of a head cold. Love the ride though – it is a favourite of mine.

When we got off, we headed to World Showcase to join in on the Easter Egg hunt. You had to buy a map for $5 which included stickers then you went around World Showcase looking for the hidden eggs and marking them on the map with the stickers. The first egg was in Norway and we couldn’t find it, so we moved on the China and we couldn’t find that one either! We asked people who were coming from the other direction and they said the eggs over that side of the park were easy to find, so we persevered and I found the China egg. From that point on, all the other eggs were really easy to find. We ended up going back to Norway and I spotted the egg straight away (I have no idea how we had missed it earlier!). Once our egg map was completed, we redeemed it for a Vinylmation keyring which was a nice touch – the egg hunt was fun.

Following the hunt, we dumped more stuff in our locker then headed to the Coral Reef restaurant. We loved this! We had a table right up against the glass and the food was sensational. I had the Thai red curry with chicken, and Della had some other chicken dish with bacon. Both meals were terrific. We then both had the chocolate wave dessert with raspberry sorbet which was just amazing – neither of us are big food people, but we were both seriously impressed with this meal. And the wonderful view of the sea-life was just a bonus. We highly recommend this restaurant!

Next, we headed to The Land for the boat ride – this is a nice relaxing way to let your lunch settle while at the same time having an interesting boat ride around the Epcot food growing areas.

We then headed to Journey into Imagination with Figment which is still a strange ride, but for some unknown reason, I like it!

Next up, we decided to walk through both Innovations areas and once again, we didn’t bother stopping to try anything. I might have had a go at the Sum of All Thrills but I didn’t want to wait too long as we had other rides to go on.

After a quick pin shop, I dropped more stuff at the locker, then we headed to Mexico for the boat ride – it was a walk on. It had changed since we last did it in 2006 with the inclusion of the Three Caballeros and it was quite fun.

We then went past Norway, but the line for Maelstrom was out the door, so we continued on to The American Adventure. I’d forgotten this attraction but I quite enjoyed it – and the animatronic characters are probably the best I’ve ever seen. It gets a bit too patriotic towards the end (I started getting the giggles during the music sequence at the end which is probably not a good thing) but apart from that, I find the story interesting.

We headed back to Norway after The American Adventure and Maelstrom queue was much shorter. We jumped aboard and had front row. I had forgotten that this ride went backwards – it really is a cool attraction. I just wish it was a little longer!

It was now late in the day and we decided to call it a night – we didn’t need to see Illuminations again so we just headed back to the resort after picking up our locker stuff.

Tomorrow, we are heading back to the Magic Kingdom as there are heaps of things over there we hadn’t done yet. This holiday is just too much fun!

[ColinA]

When was the last time you went to WDW Keith.

[KeithS]

When was the last time you went to WDW Keith.

The last time we were in WDW was 2006, although it just seems like yesterday now that we are here.

20 March 2013 – Magic Kingdom
Today was a Magic Kingdom day, so after breakfast, we hopped on the bus and headed to the park. We need a couple of days here to knock over all the attractions, but today we could make a start with Tomorrowland.

When we arrived, we headed down Main Street and moved straight to Tomorrowland. Our first stop was to get a Space Mountain fastpass before jumping aboard Buzz Lightyear. I like the layout of this Buzz and like how they use projections as well as figurines to shoot, but I wish they’d upgrade the guns to the ones used in the other parks.

We then stepped across the way to the Stitch Encounter. This always annoys me, because the sets are fantastic, but the story is just lame – I think it is time they changed this attraction.

Following Stitch, our fast pass for Space Mountain was due, so we leapt on board for our flight through space. I don’t mind this ride, but Della doesn’t like it – she prefers the ones with the music soundtrack. It is a long ride and pretty rough but there is something about it that I like – just can’t put my finger on it!

After Space Mountain, we hopped on the Peoplemover and that is a lot of fun and nice and relaxing – I like looking down on Tomorrowland.

We then decided to grab a bite to eat over at Casey’s Corner – we both had hot dogs (I had the BBQ-slaw with pulled pork, it was enormous, but I ate it all!) Straight after lunch, we sat and watched the parade in Main Street again.

After the parade, we went back to Tomorrowland and saw Monsters Inc Laugh Floor and this was totally hilarious! We really liked this and the monsters were so quick with the laughs while taking the mickey out of people in the audience. I’d never laughed so hard in a theme park before!

After the Laugh Floor, we jumped on Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress – this is still great, although the song does get in your head still. This pretty much ticked off most of Tomorrowland, except for the Astro Orbitor and the speedway.

We moved on to the teacups next as there was no wait. Next we headed into the New Fantasyland to take a look at the circus area shops. We didn’t go on Dumbo as there was a bit of a wait so we went and had afternoon tea at Gaston’s tavern, including a cinnamon bun which was yum.

After Gaston, we walked onto Haunted Mansion before riding on the Liberty Belle around the Rivers of America. When we got off the boat, we walked around to Splash Mountain and Big Thunder, but both were very busy, so we headed back to the Hall of Presidents to watch the show. It was surprisingly entertaining. When we came out, it had started to rain quite a bit and had turned very cold. We were going to stay for the fireworks but had no desire to sit in the rain to wait, so we hit the shops again on Main Street before exiting the park. We caught the bus around 8:15pm, but our bus driver got lost heading to our resort; we knew something was wrong when we went past the “Thank you for visiting Walt Disney World” signs! We had left the whole resort. I got out the GPS on my phone, and we were nowhere near our resort. Eventually however, he found his way back to the resort, it just took 45 minutes!

We grabbed a supper of muffins, cookies and gelato and then came back to the room. Tomorrow, we need to do some washing and more shopping down at Downtown Disney before we head off on the cruise.

[ColinA]

Thanks for the daily updates. Have you done the new ride, Journey of the Little Mermaid.