2017: The Year of All the Disney Trips - Page 9 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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I've never been to US since HP. My last US trip would've been to the one in California in 1992 or 1993. But I love Harry Potter, and would LOVE to see the Wizarding World.
well, if we go (and it's looking like we are going to) you KNOW there will be pics!
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since mom missed the first 2.5 days of her trip, she wanted to make up for lost time. also, this was her first scooter-free trip since her diagnosis and treatment. so she was all like LET'S DO THIS. you will note that at this point i've been in WDW for four full days, so i'm not as energetic as she is. but i love her so...
we set out for AK early in the morning. having decided that we didn't really need FPs for AK, we changed everything around the night before and got FPs for MK for later that day instead (and i somehow snagged a FP for the dwarfs mine train with less than 24 hours notice; NO idea how!) mom's priority was to see festival of the lion king, so we headed to the theater first for the 10am show.
mom loves the shows in AK more than anything else, and her goal was to see all three--FoLK, flights of wonder, and finding nemo--in our short morning/early afternoon visit. we thought this wasn't possible, but we were wrong.
we went directly from the end of the 10am FoLK to the 10:30 flights of wonder and just missed the first maybe two minutes, which was fine. after which we took a brief break for WAY TOO MUCH LUNCH at flame tree. i'm not sure if they accidentally put too many ribs on my plate or what, but i'm probably never going to order ribs there again if no one will share them with me because it was a lot of waste. also in retrospect, i noticed that they now offer a 'side' of fries covered in cheese and pulled pork which is like $6 and would totally be a meal for me so that will be my plan in the future
after lunch, mom rushed to the nemo theater and made the noon performance while i walked around (i get sick often immediately after i eat and felt that sitting in a crowded theater would be a bad plan.) i met up with her after nemo and we made our way to the bus to head back to the resort. we were back at the floridian by 1pm. mom went for a swim and i took a bath in the giant awesome tub (i realize this is a strange thing to do in the middle of the day but i was achey and the huge soaking tub-with-jets was awesome and there's a tv in the bathroom mirror you can watch from the tub and what's better than THAT?)
i really wasn't feeling well for some reasons, so post bath i laid down on the couch in a robe and...fell asleep. like so, so very asleep. mom woke me up to tell me she was heading over to MK and i was like 'wait i will come with you!' and she was like 'no its fine i'm going alone' and ran out the door. i got dressed quickly and followed her, and we met up at the new little mermaid ride in new fantasyland, as we had our first FP of the day there.
we then did the haunted mansion with a FP and dwarfs a little after 5pm, which was lovely in the dusk. i feel like maybe we did something else as a walk-on but i don't remember.
and then mom wanted to go to epcot. because two parks in one day isn't enough apparently.
we took the monorail to the TTC, switched to the epcot monorail, and soon were walking towards spaceship earth, which had NO LINE AT ALL. like it was kind of creepy. after exiting the ride and finding the little interactive area TOTALLY EMPTY, i was like 'let's try to get a fastpass for soarin' and see what happens'.
except...wait for it...WE DIDN'T NEED TO.
the standby time for soarin' was five minutes.
i am not making this up.
we walked on to soarin'. like literally WALKED ON. like didn't stop walking until we were in the actual loading bay area. i've never had that happen before, not even with a fastpass. epcot was a GHOST TOWN. it was nuts.
we then decided to press our luck and try to get a walk up at le cellier (hey, a girl can dream right?) but i guess it wasn't that much of a ghost town, which was fine. instead we watched the band i love at the canada stage and then went to have fish and chips for dinner in the UK before watching illuminations and taking the monorail back to the floridian.
i'm still kind of up in the air about it, and currently have two reservations--on in st. pete and one at universal--both are cancelable up until 48 hours in advance.
thoughts on which is the better plan? keeping in mind that my husband has his nerd heart set on harry potter?
END MINI PTR.
thoughts on the plan? comments? suggestions?
Just catching up due to family issues...
Personally I love the plans the way they are especially the swing with manatees and the laid back time. HOWEVER, since this is his spring break and he has his heart set on Harry Potter I would scrap St. Pete and do Harry Potter. Give & get I say.
So the new MK opening was meh...how did it compare to the old one in your opinion. I realize my highlight would be more space but other than that I am unsure what I would think. I would hate the CM & an annoying microphone nor do I like the notion of not having an empty Main Street ever.
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Last edited by cattailmarsh; 02-26-2017 at 04:16 PM..
On the PTR -- As a Harry Potter fan, I can't help but vote for doing US/IOA. On the TR -- On our trip last May we noted a 10 minute wait on Peter Pan, too, and headed into the standby queue for the first time. We loved it! I totally agree with watching Wishes from the Top of the World Lounge. Very impressed with you and your mom's accomplished in three parks. Incredibly busy, but it sounded so fun.
Personally I love the plans the way they are especially the swing with manatees and the laid back time. HOWEVER, since this is his spring break and he has his heart set on Harry Potter I would scrap St. Pete and do Harry Potter. Give & get I say.
So the new MK opening was meh...how did it compare to the old one in your opinion. I realize my highlight would be more space but other than that I am unsure what I would think. I would hate the CM & an annoying microphone nor do I like the notion of not having an empty Main Street ever.
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oh we are definitely doing the manatees and laid back time! in fact, we booked the manatee swim last night. it's happening this friday! but i think we will probably do harry potter. my heart wasn't set on st pete, and his heart is set on harry, so his heart wins.
the new MK opening just wasn't as magical. i have no idea why this is. i'm not super sentimental, but the old opening show had a quality of special-ness. like it...built up suspense. perhaps it is simply the (actual) magic of something being done over and over and over (i believe in actual magic so there's that.) it's like...ritual. the new show lacked this. also i guess there's something to be said for the fact that the old opening was the only thing that ever occurred on the train platform. the new show feels like any old castle show. however, that being said, i loved being able to have breakfast before park opening. i'll talk more about this in the future, but it's definitely a better space for the opening.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
On the PTR -- As a Harry Potter fan, I can't help but vote for doing US/IOA. On the TR -- On our trip last May we noted a 10 minute wait on Peter Pan, too, and headed into the standby queue for the first time. We loved it! I totally agree with watching Wishes from the Top of the World Lounge. Very impressed with you and your mom's accomplished in three parks. Incredibly busy, but it sounded so fun.
we definitely had fun! but even with my nap, i was still beat!
and yeah, we will probably do universal. i'll make the decision before we leave on thursday.
Looks like a great day in the parks and two of you had an especially good time at the AK shows!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
I love a relaxing soak in the resort tub in the middle of the day as well! Not something I would ever even THINK of doing at home, but at WDW, that was my mid day luxury every day!
All caught up now - wow, that was a bit freaky with no-one at Epcot and I just love how you guys made it round three parks in one day. People say we're like the Energiser bunnies, but there's no way we could do that!
ok. hi again! so i've found a flaw with this TR plan--i'm now back from my second trip before finishing my report for my first trip.
such problems, right?
i may skip ahead to this most recent trip. for now, here are photos from trip #1, the january trip. ignore all of the words in the post and just look at the pics.
Having that kind of a problem is a very good thing! Love the photos and like how you broke them down into various categories which makes it far more interesting viewing them!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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Very impressed with you and your mom's accomplished in three parks. Incredibly busy, but it sounded so fun. 
but i think we will probably do harry potter. my heart wasn't set on st pete, and his heart is set on harry, so his heart wins. 
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