Is It Time Already?! OKW and POR, November 2013 About This Page:

[Cam22]

I had wondered if that beep beep beep was the bus kneeling. Glad you finally got the DAS.

[chezp]

Well, one mystery solved, but I must admit I'd have your reaction - not something you want to have to put up with each night.

[dutchdisneyfamily]

That is so weird how noisy it was! I hope your room at POR was better. Looks like you did a great job shopping too!

[Dlandmom2]

Originally Posted by Cam22

I had wondered if that beep beep beep was the bus kneeling. Glad you finally got the DAS.

Our first trip we stayed offsite for the first week and then splurged on Beach Club for two nights in a room that was nowhere near the bus stops. I didn't remember hearing the beeping last time, but then we didn't take the bus much on those last two days since we could walk or boat to Epcot or DHS.

Originally Posted by chezp

Well, one mystery solved, but I must admit I'd have your reaction - not something you want to have to put up with each night.

I'm a light sleeper to begin with, so I was wondering how it would affect me the rest of the stay. I'm just glad it didn't bother the kids.

Originally Posted by dutchdisneyfamily

That is so weird how noisy it was! I hope your room at POR was better. Looks like you did a great job shopping too!

I was really surprised by the noise. I really like the feel of OKW, and it seems like a very tranquil place. Unfortunately, I discovered it can be quite noisy depending on the location of your room!

[disneydreamer33]

Sorry you had so much noise going on around your room. I am a light sleeper too, so it would have driven me crazy too. Glad you were able to get the kids parkhoppers without going back to the room.

[mcc0313]

Glad you were able to get the tickets with no issues. Sorry for the long wait for the DAS, but the Fast Passes were a nice little gift and glad that you were able to get the DAS once inside the park.

Great choice of Spaceship Earth....that is usually our first stop too when we get to Epcot for the first time, just always feels like the perfect way to start the trip.

[SuperDave]

Fell behind on this a bit!

Glad you had a good flight and nice dinner over in DD for fish and chips! They looked really good. Too bad at the airport with that attendant ripping your DME tag!

Looks like a nice room and sorry to hear that you had to suffer through so much noise with the carts and buses, while you were trying to sleep!

Off to a good start a t Epcot and looking forward to more!

[xwewhisper]

How sweet of the extra FPs for the printer issues


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[Dlandmom2]

Originally Posted by disneydreamer33

Sorry you had so much noise going on around your room. I am a light sleeper too, so it would have driven me crazy too. Glad you were able to get the kids parkhoppers without going back to the room.

I've been a light sleeper for as long as I remember, and I also have a hard time falling asleep...but gosh darn, those little carts were really loud!

Originally Posted by mcc0313

Glad you were able to get the tickets with no issues. Sorry for the long wait for the DAS, but the Fast Passes were a nice little gift and glad that you were able to get the DAS once inside the park.

Great choice of Spaceship Earth....that is usually our first stop too when we get to Epcot for the first time, just always feels like the perfect way to start the trip.

I'm so glad we didn't have to go all the way back to the room!

Originally Posted by SuperDave

Fell behind on this a bit!

Glad you had a good flight and nice dinner over in DD for fish and chips! They looked really good. Too bad at the airport with that attendant ripping your DME tag!

Looks like a nice room and sorry to hear that you had to suffer through so much noise with the carts and buses, while you were trying to sleep!

Off to a good start a t Epcot and looking forward to more!

Thanks! Update coming right up!

Originally Posted by xwewhisper

How sweet of the extra FPs for the printer issues

It really wasn't necessary, but it was nice of him to give them to us!

[Dlandmom2]

My one "complaint" with FP+ (and ADRs for that matter) is that it forces you to plan things so far in advance! As the trip went on, and I figured out how to better utilize FP+, it got better, but it was still a bit of a pain to have to adhere to a schedule.

That being said, I don't remember the three FP+ we had made for today, but I'm pretty sure it was Spaceship Earth, Mission Space, and Maelstrom (I know, random, right? I think it had something to do with the new system where you can only pick so many "major" rides, etc.). We didn't use the FP+ for SE since it was a walk-on earlier. I think we still had a little time until our MS FP+, so what did we do? We went to Club Cool to get something to drink!

We then headed over to Test Track and used one of our "free" fastpasses. Evan got to design our car, and he had a lot of fun doing so!



Then we had fun making a commercial for our new vehicle, and then the kids decided they had to try out some of the new cars in the showroom!

I love Evan's face in this pic because he looks very ready for a road trip!



The kids tried to play the driving game, but they had a hard time maneuvering their virtual cars around the track!

After that, we walked over toward Mission Space. We went on green because I wasn't sure I could handle Orange. Sophia and I took a Dramamine or Bonine every morning because Sophia tends to get motion sick easily, and as I get older, I've become more and more prone to motion sickness! We used our Magic Band for the FP+, but we really didn't need to since the line was non-existent. We figured out later how to better use FP+ (In this case, don't use the FP+ and go through the short regular line. After you get off the ride, get on your smartphone (or go to a FP+ kiosk) and switch out the FP+ you didn't have to use for something else you want to try).

MS space was fun, but Sophia and Evan were a bit concerned during the ride because the person who was placed with us in the 4th seat was so excited by the ride that she wasn't paying attention to the right time to push the buttons! Luckily, we made it one piece! I would imagine that on the Orange version, you wouldn't be able to turn your head and look at the people sitting next to you!

At this point it was about 2:30pm, which felt like the beginning of lunch time for us, lol! We weren't sure where we wanted to eat, but along the way we got sidetracked by the Jammitors. Love them!

We decided to try Electric Umbrella. Ordering was easy, and I used my Magic Band to pay. Worked like a charm!

I had a veggie flat bread which was good except for the overpowering vinaigrette on it.



Sophia had a meatball sub, and Evan had chicken tenders.





Bellies full, we were ready to take on more of Future World!

[Dlandmom2]

Because we had the Wishes Dessert Party at MK later in the evening, I had set a rough goal of leaving Epcot around 4 so we could walk around MK a bit before we went to the party. It was now about 3:30, so we only had time to do one more thing at Epcot. What should we do?

I missed so many things on our first trip in 2009, and my goal this trip was to try to see as many of those as possible. A lot of them aren't headliner rides, but just things we don't have in DLR. One of them was Universe of Energy. It drive Sophia nuts when I try to squeeze in education in almost everything we do, and this was no different. However, since I had never been on this ride, I could honestly say "I've never been on this ride." Of course, I had done my research and knew what to expect, but I never said "I don't know anything about this ride."

We walked in about 3 minutes before show time...perfect! We watched the intro movie, and then we walked through the doors and onto our ride vehicles. Since I had never been on this ride (true statement!), I didn't know which seat would be best. (Now that I've been on the ride, I still can't tell if one seat is really better than another!) I chose the front row of the second vehicle on the right...if you really care to know these things.

Evan really enjoyed seeing the dinosaurs, and I really enjoyed this ride overall. I don't think I need to do it every time, but I think I'd like to if I could.





Doesn't that second pair of dinosaurs look suspiciously similar to the "back in time" scene on the Disneyland Railroad?

Sophia has science teacher who loves to play Bill Nye videos for the kids to illustrate what he's teaching. Sophia kept insisting this was a vacation...away from school! I told her there's learning in everything we do every day of our lives. (Yeah, Mom, I know...!) What was her reaction when Bill Nye showed up on the screen?

After learning that we will never run out of Brain Power (Evan repeated that phrase many times during and after the trip!), we decided to leave Epcot for now and head over to MK. We got on the monorail to the TTC and then switched over to the MK monorail.



Sophia bought those ears at DTD on our first night, and wore it almost every single moment we were in the parks!

We didn't remember until after we had left Epcot that we still had a free fastpass to use! Oh well. We really didn't even need it, the crowds were so small!

Next: Walking into the Magic Kingdom!

[SuperDave]

Wow! Sounds like a great time at Epcot from Test Track, Mission Space and Universe of Energy. Looked like a great lunch as well! I think all went well for you guys without any obstacles!

[Dlandmom2]

Originally Posted by SuperDave

Wow! Sounds like a great time at Epcot from Test Track, Mission Space and Universe of Energy. Looked like a great lunch as well! I think all went well for you guys without any obstacles!

Yep, it was a great start to the trip for us!

[Dlandmom2]

Walking into MK is always such an amazing feeling. I was snapping pics all over (unfortunately, I was using my camera, so those pics will show up in the pictorial later!).

If I remember correctly, we went to Space Mountain first and used our DAS to get a return time which wasn't too far off. We then went on the Peoplemover...umm, Tomorrowland Transit Authority? I miss that ride at Disneyland! I would've been happy to go on that ride over and over and over, but unfortunately as it turned out, that was the only time we rode it this trip.

I can't remember if we went on the Carousel of Progress at this point, but I think we might have. I love this as well, as we don't have this at Disneyland either.

Finally, it was time to ride Space Mountain! The first thing that caught my attention is there's no music. That's how it usually is, right? I much prefer it with music, like it is at Disneyland. Also, the ride is much more bumpy and jerky at MK. We still enjoyed it a lot, but all of us preferred the one in California.

Sophia looks bored, doesn't she? And I look like I'm loaded down with enough to go on a two week safari!



Afterwards, we spent quite a bit of time playing in the arcade area.

At this point, I had to spill the beans about the Dessert Part because I wanted to see if I could figure out when we were supposed to check in. I hadn't done my research very well, but for some reason I thought I had read in someone's TR that the check in was around 7 (it was about 6:45pm at the time). So, we walked over to the terrace area, but it was deserted. Ok, what do we do now?

We decided to head over to try Buzz. The line wasn't bad at all. I'm pretty sure we just waited in the regular line, and Evan was fine. It was a bit tough to get used to the guns since we're used to being able to pick up the gun to aim and shoot. Still, we had a lot of fun. I don't remember our score (I'm sure it was pretty bad).





After Buzz, we headed back over to the terrace area where I saw a few CMs looking like they were arranging some serving tables. I asked what time the check-in was for the dessert party, but neither one of them knew. They thought it was about 7:45 or so.

I think at this point it was about 7:15, and I really didn't have a lot of energy to walk very much before the dessert party, so we found some seating nearby and decided to rest our feet. I had packed our Kindle for Evan to use when we had down time. Between that and my phone, he was fine with staying put for a while. I kept an eye on the far side of the terrace where we were supposed to check-in. Around 7:35, I looked over and thought I saw some people standing there, so we decided to walk over and see what was up.

When we got there, we saw that there were already about 15-20 people in line. I asked the people at the end of the line if they were there for the dessert party, and they were so we got in line behind them. We chatted with them for a bit, and they spoke very highly of the dessert party. This would be their second time doing it. I asked if the seats were already assigned (which is what I had read on PP), and they said yes but that didn't keep people from lining up anyway!

Unfortunately, the kids were quite bored waiting in line. I tired to keep them amused, but they weren't having any of it. Sophia was getting hungry, but I told her we probably shouldn't get anything to eat now since we'd be having dessert soon (the dessert party was going to be our dinner tonight, lol!). Finally the CMs started to check people in, and we were seated at what I think was the best table right in the front row!

Next: Dessert Party!

[jandsdennis]

Sounds like things are going well. Sorry for all the noise. When we stayed at okw we didnt experience that.