Mickey vs. Debby: Doing Disney in a Tropical Storm - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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Rain in Florida? Maybe I've been too many times because that's one of the first things I prepare for. I'm sorry you got hit with Debby but at least you still had a lot of fun.
It's funny you made the comment about you not being a shopper unless at Disney. My husband is the same exact way. I can't drag him into a store here at home without hearing all about it (why do I have to go, you don't need my help, etc) but it's not ever me who suggest shopping at the Disney gift stores - it's always Lenny.
I may have tomatoes thrown at me but I 100% agree with you about Illuminations. We don't like it. It was good way back when Epcot opened and the fireworks were actually fireworks (not that low stuff they call fireworks now) and they had the lasers as part of the show. I don't think the addition of the water effects or the globe made for a better show but that's me. We think Illuminations is good for one thing - keeping lots and lots of people in the park leaving us to get out of the park relatively crowd free.
Love your trip report so far, especially that you stayed at CBR.
We'll be staying there for our first time in September, so I love reading about it.
And honestly -- we have yet to stay and watch an Illuminations -- for whatever reason it never drew me in much.... now the fireworks at MK -- we CANNOT MISS!
It took me a few posts to register who/what Debby was - I went back and re-read your post trying to figure out who this Debby lady was that invited herself on your trip !
Enjoying the start of the TR so far. Sorry about the rain. It always rains on us the night we leave the kids in the kids club and try to have a fun adult evening. It starts pouting when we are eating dinner. We are so prepared for it now, that even if the forecast says all clear we take our ponchos on adult night.
Ok, sorry for the long break but life's been busy. So we are now on...
Tuesday: This was our day at DHS. I know this is probably also sacrilege, but DHS is my second favorite park (though Epcot grew on me on this last trip). We picked this day because it was supposed to be a medium crowd day, but you know what? Rain apparently just ruins those crowd predictors right out the window. DHS was packed. I mean really packed. At one point I reached into my pocket and pulled out the guy next to me's wallet (rim shot!). But seriously, it was crowded.
So we'd been warned that if we were to get one FP at DHS, to use it on Toy Story so that's what we did. We didn't get there at rope drop like we'd planned, so the park was already filling up when we got there. We made a bee line to TS and there were lines at the FP machines. FP's in hand, we went over to Star Tours because we have an 11 year old boy and that's the law. I don't know how much you've heard about the re-vamped Star Tours but its awesome! We loved the old one but this one was way better. And no one was there! So we went back through and got a completely different ride. Wait, what? They do that? I didn't know so it made for a very cool surprise.
Following Star Tours and the obstacle course that is the gift shop on the way out, we had to take pictures of our son on the forest speeder so we could compare the 11 year old kid now to the kid when we took pictures of him on the speeder at age 6. (Spoiler alert: he got taller.)
Then it was on to RNRC & TOT. Now, the kid loves RNRC but can't do TOT. My wife loves TOT but can't do RNRC and I love them both. The lines are long for both of them and the wife decides to just people watch and shop for pins (more on that later) while the boy and I stand in line. It was a long line. I think we're actually still in that line. What made it even more fun was the woman who was forcing her six year old daughter onto the ride (See "For the Love of All That's Decent" thread on Touring the World.) So yeah, that was a special treat for 85 minutes. Ugh, 85 minutes. Still, the RNRC is a pretty awesome coaster, it a little short. If you haven't done it, do it. You'll either thank me or you'll get sick and either way I'll be entertained.
So we (finally) got out of RNRC and guess what? The TOT line was down to a mere 30 minutes. So I call my wife, tell her to hoof it over to TOT and we wait a mere 30 minutes for that. Now, I have to admit; the whole up and down thing on TOT scares the poot out me (back off, I'm from Texas and we talk like that), which is probably why I like it. I actually caught some air on this ride so that was interesting...
By now it was getting close to our lunch reservations at the Sci-Fi Drive In Theater. We absolutely love this place and eat there every trip. It's dark, it's cool, the theme is fun and the food is great. The only problem was that they were running a little behind and we were bumping up against the end of our FP window. We told our waitress and she offered to bring our desserts in to go boxes and we took her up on that. It's a good thing, too because we hoofed it over to Toy Story with about 5 minutes left on the FP's.
Ok, maybe it's just me but I honestly don't know why people stand in line so long for this ride. Yes, it's a fun ride. Yes the 3D is cool. Yes the theming is off the charts good, but a 2 1/2 hour wait? Really? I'm glad we had FP's.
After that it was time to head home for a rest. We'd never seen Fantasmic and I was determined to see it this time so we went back to the resort for a nap. That was the only time that we got really soaked. Holy cow did it rain on us from just inside the gate to the bus stop. I think the animals at AK were pairing up by twos right about then. But we were ok and it's a quick drive to the resort from DHS.
After we got dry and had a nap, we took our time going back to the park. First, the wife had to shop for pins (more on that later). The son and I headed over to Star Tours again while the wife made her way to Fantasmic. Star Tours had no line and it's a good thing because I got a text on the way out telling me to get to the amphitheater ASAP: the place was filling up! The boy and I power walked our way to the amphitheater and sure 'nuff, the place was getting crowded. Never fear, though: there are no bad seats there.
Ok, I have to say that I had high expectations for Fantasmic and, as usual, Disney exceeded them. What a fun show! There was Mickey and bad guys and fire and music and a dragon and lasers and water and ninjas on unicorns. Well, maybe no ninjas or unicorns but those were the only things lacking. It's awesome and if you haven't seen it, do so the next time you're there.
After that we just ambled around and out and back to the resort. It doesn't sound like much when I type it but it took all day.
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