My first trip to Disney World (9/3/14 - 9/7/14), Followed by a Disney Cruise!

[mitsguy2001]

My wife and I had a wonderful time on our trip to Walt Disney World!! I am 35 and my wife is 36. We spent 4 nights at Disney World followed by a 4 night Disney cruise on the Disney Dream. This review will focus on the 4 night land portion of the trip. A review of the cruise will be posted later in the Disney Cruise message board. This was my first time at Disney World, although my wife has been there many times in the past, most recently in 2004. I have, however, been on a Disney Cruise in the past, in 2006.

For this trip, we stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort, since we felt that it would be a good preview of the cruise. My wife has been to several different Disney resorts in the past, ranging from Value to Deluxe, and this is now her new favorite resort! We very highly recommend this resort to anybody staying at Disney World. I will post more information about the resort below (under Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014).

We arrived at Walt Disney World on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014. Our plan was to spend Wednesday evening at the resort, and then spend the next 3 days at the parks. This allowed us to visit 3 of the parks in a reasonable level of detail: Magic Kingdom on Thursday, EPCOT on Friday, and Animal Kingdom on Saturday. We did not have time to visit Hollywood Studios or any of the water parks. Obviously we couldn't see every attraction that every park had to offer. We purchased the Park Hopper ticket so that we could return to EPCOT on Saturday after the Animal Kingdom closed (it closes earlier than the other parks). Our 3 day Park Hopper ticket included a 4th day for free, but we did not use it since we were going on the cruise on Sunday.

My general comment about Disney World is that it is completely unlike anything I had ever seen before! I had always pictured Disney World as being a better and larger version of my local amusement park, but in reality, it is something completely different. Also, the 3 parks that we visited were all very unique and very different from each other, each with a very different atmosphere and offering very different attractions. I will describe in more detail when describing our day at each park. To make this easier to read, I will post each day in a separate post.

 

[mitsguy2001]

Wednesday, September 3, 2014 (Arrival at Caribbean Beach Resort)

My wife and I flew on Southwest Airlines from Long Island / Islip MacArthur Airport (ISP) to Orlando International Airport (MCO). Living on Long Island, NY, it is always very convenient when we can fly on Southwest Airlines from MacArthor Airport, since it saves us the trip to LaGuardia or Kennedy. We Used Disney's Magical Express service to get from the airport to the resort. This is a very convenient service which allows you to bypass the baggage claim at the airport and have your luggage delivered directly to your room at your Disney resort. This saves the time of waiting at the baggage claim, as well as the hasssle of handling your checked baggage. I have been told that Disney's Magical Express is very reliable as far as delivering luggage. The signage at the airport for the Magical Express service was very clear. I've been to MCO airport a few times in the past, and it is one of the nicest airports that I've been to. The bus service seemed to run efficiently and was comfortable. The bus stopped at a few other EPCOT-area resorts before stopping at the Caribbean Beach resort.

I should mention that prior to your trip, you can obtain Magic Bands in the mail. Every member of your party will wear a band around their wrist. The Magic Bands have a Mickey symbol on them, and anywhere that you can use them, there will be a Mickey symbol to touch. You need to touch Mickey to Mickey to use the bands. The first time that you will use the Magic Bands is to board the Magical Express bus. So, be sure to either wear your Magic Band before boarding your plane, or have it in your carryon luggage; do not put it in your checked luggage. Other uses of the Magic Band are to enter your hotel room (you won't get a seperate key card), to charge purchases (both at the resort and the parks) to your room, to enter the parks (your tickets will be stored on the Magic Band), and to check into a FastPass reservation. Also, on a least one ride during Extra Magic Hours, we had to use our Magic Bands, presumably to prove that we were staying at a resort. The Magic Bands, however, do not work on the cruise; you will still receive a key card on the cruise. When using your Magic Band for a purchase, you will be required to enter a PIN. When entering a park, they will scan your fingerprint, to be sure that the same person is using the tickets and that you didn't give your Magic Band to somebody else.

The Caribbean Beach resort was very beautiful!! Like I said, my wife has been to many other Disney resorts, and said this is her new favorite. I would highly recommend it! The Magical Express bus dropped us off at the Customs House, which is where we checked into the resort. One caveat about the Caribbean Beach resort is that it is huge! The main area of the resort, which contains the main pool, food court, restaurant, gift shop, and concierge desk, is called Old Port Royale. I definitely recommend requesting a room that is close to Old Port Royale, since you will be going there frequently, and it can be a long walk from many parts of the resort to Old Port Royale (you will probably instead opt to take the internal shuttle). Proximity to the Customs House is not important, since you will not be going there again after you check in. Each section of the resort is named after a Caribbean island. We were assigned a room in Trinidad North, which is one of the closest sections to Old Port Royale! I definitely recommend either Trinidad North (where we stayed) or Martinique, since they are the closest to Old Port Royle. All of Trinidad North and part of Martinique are considered "preferred loations" and normally charge a higher rate. However, we were not charged extra, presumably since it was an off-peak time of year, so it was basically a free upgrade. We took a map of each park from the front desk. You will definitely need maps of each park that you plan to visit!

After checking in, we took the internal shuttle to Trinidad North. We were staying on the 2nd floor of Building 33. Like I said, this was a very convenient location since it's close to Old Port Royale. The room was very nice; it had a king bed, and sort of a split bathroom where the toilet and shower were in a seperate room from where there was a double sink. The double sinks had a curtain seperating that area from the rest of the room. The room also had a refrigerator, and had an ample amout of storage. There was also a safe, though it was hard to find and I didn't notice it until the last day.

Our luggage hadn't arrived yet from the Magical Express, so we took a walk around the resort. Each village has a "quiet pool", and has a beach area on the lake (not for swimming). The resort is very beautiful, and does a very good job of capturing the feel of a Caribbean island. There was an island in the middle of the lake called Caribbean Cay, which was very nice, although we didn't have much time to spend there.

As I said before, the centerpiece of the resort is Old Port Royale. This area includes the resort's main pool, which is patterned after the El Morro fort in Puerto Rico! It also includes two waterslildes. The pool was one of the best features of this resort; we will talk more about it later. Old Port Royale also includes the Centertown building, which inclues the food court, restaurant, gift shop, and concierge desk. Dsney's excellent job of capturing the feel of a Caribbean island was also carried over into this building!

For dinner, we had a reservation at Shutters, which is the sit-down restaurant in the Centertown building. This restaurant has a Caribbean theme, and we felt it would be a great way to kick off our trip!! We enjoyed the dinner very much, and we both had a tropical drink with out dinner! Definitely a great way to start.

After dinner, we went back to our room, and briefly unpacked (our luggage had arrived), and then we went to the main pool! This is one of the best pools that we've ever been to, and is definitely one of the main attractions at this resort!! As I said, the pool was patterned after the El Morro fort in Puerto Rico. We had seen El Moro in a cruise back in 2011, so this brought back a lot of memories! The pool had 2 waterslides. We used the larger slide which went through the El Morro structure, and was a lot of fun. It wasn't overly intense, just a lot of fun. The other waterslide appeared to be more geared toward young kids. There was also a seperate water play area for kids, but it was closed for renovations. Not a problem for us since we didn't have any kids, but something to be aware of if you are planning to stay at this resort in the near future and have young children.

This resort is definitely a vacation in its own right. If you have an extended stay at Disney World, I definitely recommend taking at least a day to enjoy the resort. Since we had only a short time at Disney World since we were going on the cruise on Sunday, that wasn't really an option for us, but we were very glad to have enjoyed the resort this evening.

After the pool, we went back to our room, took our showers, and went to bed.

 

[mitsguy2001]

Thursday, September 4, 2014 (Magic Kingdom)

This was a very exciting day since it was my first time ever visting a Disney park!! We had breakfast at the food court at Old Port Royale. I had the Mickey waffles for breakfast every day; they were really cute! Wanting to be close to the food court for breakfast is one of the main reasons why I suggest a room in Trinidad North or Martinique.

After breakfast, we took the bus to the Magic Kingdom! The Caribbean Beach Resort has a bus stop at Old Port Royale (where we took the bus from) as well as each village. The bus system seemed to run very efficiently. There was a seperate bus for each park, and they ran very frequently. We had literally no wait for the bus today. I honestly am not sure why some people complain about the bus service from this resort; it took only a few minutes to stop at each village. I know that some people recommend renting a car, but, honestly, I do not see any advantage to doing so. The buses were free, comfortable, ran efficiently, and saved us from having to drive and park in an unfamiliar area.

The Magic Kingdom was unlike anything I had ever been to! As I said, I had always pictured it as being a bigger and better version of my local amusement park, but it really goes far beyond that. The walk from the entrance of the park to the center, with Cinderella's Castle, is called Main Street USA, and is one of 6 themed lands within the Magic Kingdom (the other 5 are Fantasyland, Liberty Square, Frontierland, Adventureland, and Tomorrowland). If you think of the Magic Kingdom as a hub and spoke system, with Cinderella's Castle as the hub, it does not feel very overwhelming at all, despite its size, since each of the 6 themed lands is fairly easy to navigate on its own. Each of the parks has a centerpiece (Cinderella's Castle, in this case), which helps with navigating the park. While walking down Main Street, toward Cinderella's Castle, a parade passed by! That was an exciting way to start the day!! It was very exciting walking toward Cinderella's Castle, since that is an iconic building that I've seen all my life, but finally saw in person!

Our plan for the day was to visit each of the themed lands. With just 1 day at the Magic Kingdom, obviously we didn't have time to see every attraction that the park has. We had 3 Fastpass reservations for the day; It's a Small World (Fantasyland), Haunted Mansion (Liberty Square), and Pirates of the Caribbean (Adventureland), plus a dinner reservation at Crystal Palace (near Main Street). Even on the attractions where we didn't have FastPass, there was never a long wait for rides, since this is a very off-peak time of year to visit. I do realize, however, that this somewhat spoils me for future visits, since visiting this time of year won't be an option when we have school-aged kids in the future.

After we arrived at the center of the park, our first visit was to Fantasyland. We started there since that is the most quintissential Disney, and it had our earliest FastPass reservation. Of all of the themed lands, Fantasyland is probably the one most geared toward kids, although it is definitely of interest to adults as well. Most of the rides are cute, but not necessarily thrilling (though we didn't go on the 7 Dwarves Mine Train, so I can't comment on that ride). My wife and I are not into thrill rides, so this suited us just fine! The first ride that we went on was The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. This was a cute ride, since I was a big fan of Winnie the Pooh when I was a kid! One area where Disney is different from most other amusement parks is the the queuing area for rides are an attraction in themself! Another area where Disney is different is that many rides (including this one) end in a gift shop! Speaking of the gift shop: a very useful service that the gift shops at Disney parks have is that if you buy something, you can have it delivered the next day to the gift shop at your resort. This is far more convenient than carrying a souvenier all day! However, you can't use that option if you are leaving the next day. Another option is to have it delivered to the front of the park, and pick it up on your way out, although that option is not available late in the day.

Our next ride was Peter Pan's flight. This was another cute ride, and although it was very mild, it did give you the feeling of flying. After this, we had lunch at Pinocchio Village Haus. Like most of anything Disney, the theming was very cute. The food was typical theme park food. Overpriced, but what do you expect?

After lunch we had our first FastPass reservation: It's a Small World. This was another very cute boat ride with scenes from around the world, and a cute musical story. Our final Fantasyland ride was Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid, which was another cute and enjoyable ride. We focused our visit to Fantasyland on uniquely Disney attractions such as these. On the other hand, we didn't go on rides such as the carousel, since those are avaiable at nearly any amusement park, so they were lower priorities. We considered going on it later in the day, but time did not allow.

Next, we went to Frontierland. This is another area where Disney did an excellent theming job; in this case, of capturing the feel of being in the old west! Even just walking around each of the themed lands at this park is an attraction in its own right. Our favorite ride in this area was the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This was possibly our favorite attraction at the park! This ride is a very mild roller coaster through a mine. We enjoyed this ride so much because it gives you a thrilling feeling of movement, but without any big drops. I am not a fan of most roller coasters, but I suggest that you give this one a try, even if you are not usually a roller coaster person. We did not go on Splash Mountain, since it had a very intense drop. Next, we went to the Country Bear Jamobree, which was a cute indoor show with singing bears! These indoor attractions are great when you get hot during the day.

Next we went to Liberty Square. This area has a colonial theme. Again, Disney did an excellent theming job, and even just walking around these areas is enjoyable. We first went to the Hall of Presidents, which had an entertaining show involving all of the presidents of the US. Then we went to our next FastPass reservation, the Haunted Mansion! This was another one of our favorite attractions. This is much bigger and better than the haunted house at your local amusement park, and, as I said before, even the wait to get on the ride is an attraction in itself!

Next, we went to Adventureland, which has a tropical theme! This was another beautiful area, and fit well with our stay at the Caribbean Beach Resort, as well as our upcoming cruise. Our first attraction here was the Jungle Cruise, which was a scenic and entertaining cruise through a rainforest! The guide was especially entertaining, and she said that if we don't laugh at her jokes, she will become our swimming instructor!

After we got off the Jungle Cruise, it started to pour! We were very lucky we got on it when we did, since shortly after we got off, they announced that all outdoor attractions are suspended. We know that Central Florida has rain like this every afternoon / evening, so we weren't surprised. We waited a little while under the Jungle Cruise queuing area to see if the rain would stop. When it didn't stop, we ran to Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, since it was an indoor show. This was a cute show with tropical birds and flowers, and was a great way to pass the time during the rain. Next, we went to our next FastPass reservation: Pirates of the Caribbean. This is another attraction where the queuing area is an attraction in itself! This was another fun, mild ride. This also ended in a gift shop, where we bought matching pirate t-shirts for the pirate night on our upcoming cruise! We also each bought a poncho for $9, since it was still raining. Overpriced, but what do you expect.

We next had our dinner reservation at the Crystal Palace, which is near Main Street USA. This is a Winnie the Pooh character buffet. One thing I should let you know is that when you arrive at your reservation time to a Disney restaurant, you still have some wait time before you can get in. Luckily, we had a covered area to wait during the rain. The buffet had very good food, and was very diverse with a lot of options. I enjoyed it a lot. I especially enjoyed the visits with the characters: Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eyeore, and Piglet, and took pictures with each of them. I also liked how the servers would let you know when a particular character would be coming soon, so that you would know whether or not you had time to go to the buffet to get food, without worrying about missing a character.

After dinner, it had stopped raining! We went to Tomorrowland, the final themed area. We also made a FastPass reservation for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (in Frontierland) since we enjoyed it so much and wanted to do it again! After you use your 3 FastPass reservations for the day, you are allowed to make a 4th reservation. Tomorrowland has a futuristic theme, and had a really cool atmosphere at night! There was a dance party going on this area. Our first attraction was the Carousel of Progress, which showed how technology has progressed through time, with a scene from various eras. I especially enjoyed the ending (I won't give it away for those who haven't seen it). We next walked back to Frontierland for our FastPass reservation at the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. And then back to Tomorrowland. We went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, which was interactive; sort of a combined ride and video game, which was fun. And then we went to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, which is a commedy show where the monsters pick on members of the audience. For some reason, I was chosen as "that guy", and was made fun of throughout the show. I don't know if it's based on the seat where I was sitting, or if there was something about my appearacance that caused them to choose me, or if it was truly random.

After, we saw the fireworks while walking back toward Cinderella's Castle. Although it seemed that many people found spaces early on to see the show, you really could see them from anywhere. We enjoyed the show a lot! And then since the park was closing, we walked down Main Street USA to the exit of the park. Main Street USA had a different feel at night with everything lit up. It was sad leaving after such a great day, though of course I was excited about seeing EPCOT tomorrow! When you get to the exit, the path to the buses is very clearly signed. There is a board telling you which gate number to go to for each resort. Since there were so many people returning to Caribbean Beach, we had to wait for a few buses, but they came frequently, so the wait wasn't too long. We had to stand on the bus, not surprisingly, since it was so crowded, but at least it was a short ride.

As I said earlier, Caribbean Beach Resort has bus stops both at Old Port Royale, as well as each individual village. We got off at Old Port Royale, since I wanted to stop off at the gift shop, and I wanted to buy some juice and water for the room. And then we walked back to our room. Again, this is another reason why I very highly recommend either Trinidad North or Martinique, so that you are a short walk from Old Port Royale to your room. My feet were absolutely exhausted from our day at Magic Kingdom, so I was glad to have a short walk. This was much better than either having a long walk back, or waiting for the internal shuttle, or skipping the trip to the gift shop. No matter how much you enjoy walking, your feet will be exhausted after time at a Disney park, so you will definitely appreciate a short walk between Old Port Royale and your room.

 

[mitsguy2001]

Friday, September 5, 2014 (EPCOT)

We had breakfast again at the food court at Old Port Royale (had Mickey waffles again), and took the bus to EPCOT! EPCOT was very interesting since it is really 2 completely different parks in one: Future World, and the World Showcase. Our visit today mostly focused on Futureworld (we will visit World Showcase tonight and tomorrow night). The centerpiece of this park is Spaceship Earth, which is the huge golf ball! It was very exciting to see Spaeship Earth when entering the park, just as it was exciting yesterday to see Cinderella's Castle! Our Fastpass reservations for today are Spaceship Earth, Soarin', and the Seas with Nemo and Friends. And tonight, we have a dinner reservation at the Biergarten, in the Germany section of the World Showcase!

Future World is divided into two sections: East and West. These simply refer to the east and west sides of the park; they have nothing to do with the Eastern World vs the Western World, or anything like that. Each section also has a building called Innoventions. We didn't have much time to spend at Innoventions, since we wanted to focus on other things, although they did look very interesting.

The first attraction that we visited was Ellen's Energy Adventure, which is on the east side. This is a ride where you go inside Ellen DeGeneres's mind, where she dreams that she is a contestant on Jeopardy, and all of the questions are about energy, and she does poorly during the first round. The ride teaches you about energy, especially about conservation. The ride then ends showing the Double Jeopardy and Final Jeopardy rounds, after Ellen has learned more about energy.

Although we were next to Test Track, the wait time was fairly long, and we wanted to be sure to have time for lunch in between our next attraction and our Fastpass reservation for Spaceship Earth. So, we crossed over to the west side to go on Living With the Land. The walk between Future World East and West isn't too long. Future World West primarily features three pavilions each with several attractions: The Land, The Sea, and Imagination. Living With the Land was a very interesting ride that included a ride through a greenhouse, and taught about living responsibility. Next we had lunch at the Sunshine Seasons food court, which featured several international stations, and was somewhat more interesting than the typical theme park food court.

Next we had our first Fastpass reservation of the day, at EPCOT's signature attraction, Spaceship Earth! This was a very interesting ride that taught about the history of communications! At the end of the ride, you are in an area with several interactive games, one of which allows you to e-mail a futuristic postcard, based on a picture that was taken while you were on the ride! This was definitely one of the most interesting attractions at EPCOT.

We had some time before our next Fastpass reservation, so we visited one of the Innoventions buildings. We took part in an interactive game that taught about healthy habits: hydration, exercise, and healthy eating. Then we returned to The Land to go on our next Fastpass reservation: Soarin'!! This was one of my favorite attractions at any of the Disney parks: it is a hang gliding simulator flying over California. My wife was initially apprehensive about going on this ride, since the signs outside the attraction made it sound a lot more scary and intense than it actually is. The signs warned of intense drops, when in reality, everything is on a movie screen, and you do not actually go through any intense drops nor anything scary. I am very glad that I convinced my wife to ask the staff about the ride, since this turned out to be one of our favorites, and, as my wife said, it was more relaxing than scary. I'm not sure why they had those posted warnings. One other thing about this ride is that you sit in 3 rows which you are assigned to randomly. The front row goes up the highest and the back row goes up the least. We were in the back row. I do not know if which row you are in makes a real difference in the experience of the ride, or if there is no real difference other then where you are sitting. Maybe somebody who has been on this ride multiple times can comment on whether or not the ride is more thrilling or in any way different if you sit in the front or middle row? We did go on this ride a second time later on, assuming that odds are, we'd be randomly assigned a different row, but that was not meant to be (we were again assigned to the back row).

Next, we finally had time for Test Track!! This was another one of our favorite rides!! In this ride, while you are waiting, you design a vehicle, and then you go into a car that goes around a track and you are the test dummy, testing various aspects of the vehicle! As far as I can tell, the vehicle that you design has no effect on the actual ride. We enjoyed this ride a lot, since it is thrilling, and allows you to move really fast, but without any intense drops or anything too scary.

We were very lucky that we went on Test Track when we did, since as soon as we got off, it started to rain! We were one of the last people to go on Test Track before it was suspended. Our final Fastpass reservation was at The Seas with Nemo and Friends, which is located, appropriately enough, in The Seas pavilion at Future World West. This was a cute boat ride with a finding Nemo theme. And, it was indoors, so it was great during the rain! At the end of this ride, you are in an aquarium, which was interesting to explore and see the different fish (and got us excited about the snorkeling excursion on our cruise in a few days)!

Next,since it was still raining, to avoid walking too far, we went to Journey Into Imagination with Figment. This was another cute ride where you learn about imagination, although it was probably more kid-oriented compared to most other attractions at EPCOT. Since it was still raining and there was a while until our dinner reservation (and rain obviously isn't ideal for exploring the World Showcase), we went on Soarin' again! As I said, this was one of our favorite rides, and I figured that odds are, we'd be assigned to a different row. But, as I said, we were again assigned to the back row, so I still don't know if this ride is any different if you are sitting in one of the front rows.

It was still raining, and it was getting close to our dinner reservations at the Biergarten. So we bought the overpriced $9 ponchos again, and braved the walk to World Showcase. World Showcase has exhibits from 11 different nations, aranged in a circle around a lagoon. We will explore it more later tonight (when the weather improves) and tomorrow night. Each nation features architecture from the nation being exhibited, and features shops, restaurants, and, depending on the nation, shows and/or rides. There is also a boat that sails across the lagoon between the Showcase Plaza (the starting point, at roughly the 12:00 point of the circle) to Germany (at roughly the 4:00 point on the circle), and another boat from Showcase Plaza to Morocco (at roughly the 8:00 point on the circle). Since it was still raining, and our intention for now was to get to our dinner reservation in Germany, rather than to explore the showcase, we took the boat ride to Germany. The boat was covered, so it kept us dry, and was a convenient way to get to where we were going! Note however that the boats do not run later at night due to preparations for the Illuminations Show. It is a significant walk from the further parts of the World Showcase to Future World, so be sure to plan ahead.

Our dinner at the Biergarten was excellent! Biergarten is a German buffet, and as is traditional in Germany, you are seated with other families. There was also a band that performed, which was very enjoyable! Like the rest of the World Showcase, Disney did an excellent job of re-creating the feeling of being in a restaurant in Germany!

After dinner, the rain had calmed down somewhat, so we decided to walk back to the beginning of the World Showcase, which is Mexico, and start exploring. I really enjoyed the World Showcase, since it is so unique, and Disney did such a great job of capturing the feel of each nation! The main building at Mexico combined a Mexican restaurant with a pyramid in the background, with shops, and a boat ride with a 3 Amigos theme! This was another enjoyable ride.

Luckily, the rain stopped in time for the Illuminations show! This show features fireworks and music, and each nation lights up, and was very enjoyable. After the show, we took advantage of the Extra Magic Hours, and went on Test Track again! Like I said, this was one of our favorite attractions at EPCOT. After, we were considering leaving, but decided that despite all the walking we did today and yesterday, we were having such a great time and weren't ready to leave, and wanted to make the most of our day, and returned to the World Showcase to explore some more nations. The second nation was Norway, and this featured another enjoyable boat ride, called Maelstrom. However, by the time you read this review, this ride will probably be closed, since Disney plans to convert it into a Frozen themed ride. Next, we visited China. Several of the nations, including China, include a show, but given the short duration of our visit, we didn't really have time for the shows, so we mostly walked around and enjoyed the architecture.

After exploring China, it was close to closing time, so it was time to walk back to the exit. The saddest part of every day at Disney World is the end of the day where you leave the parks. My feet were quite tired by this point, since we had been walking so much yesterday and today. We took the bus back to the Caribbean Beach Resort. As I said earlier, the buses are very clearly marked, and they run very efficiently, and today, we had no wait time at all to get a bus. But, again, the catch was that we had to stand. Not too big a deal, since it is a short ride. We got off at Old Port Royale, since we had to go to the gift shop to pick up the souveniers that we purchased the previous day at the Magic Kingdom. As I said earlier, I am glad that we were staying at Triniadad North, since after a long day with a lot of walking, I really enjoyed having a short walk back to our room from Old Port Royale!

 

[mitsguy2001]

Saturday, September 6, 2014 (Animal Kingdom during the day, EPCOT at night)

We had our usual breakfast at the food court at Old Port Royale, and then took the bus to the Animal Kingdom! The Animal Kingdom shared a bus with the Blizzard Beach water park. We had 3 Fastpass reservations for the day: Adventurers Outpost (pictures with Safari Mickey and Minnie), Festival of the Lion King, and the Kilimanjaro Safari! Since this park closes earlier than the others, we planned to return to EPCOT tonight to see more of the World Showcase and for our dinner reservation at Chefs de France, in the France section of the World Showcase!

The Animal Kingdom is a very beautiful park! The centerpiece of this park is the Tree of Life, which is a huge artificial tree, at the center of Discovery Island. The two main sections of the park are Africa and Asia. In each section, Disney did an excellent job of capturing the feel of an African and Asian village, making this a completely different experience than your local zoo! In a way, these villages were somewhat remniscient of the World Showcase at EPCOT. Obviously the main attraction here is the live animals, but walking through the two villages is an attraction in itself! There was also another section called DinoLand, although we didn't explore that section at all. Like I said earlier, with the short duration of our trip, there is not time to see everything. This park was fairly easy to navigate.

We started off in the Africa section, where the headliner attraction is the Kilimanjaro Safari ride! Our original plan was to do this as our grand finale, so we had a late afternoon Fastpass reservation. However, since there was literally no wait time at all to go on the safari ride, we decided to do it first, since it was the attraction I was most looking forward to, and we wanted to be certain to go on it in case the weather got bad later in the day. Also, we thought that we'd probably see more animals earlier in the day when it was cooler.

The safari ride was a lot of fun! Be sure to bring your camera, and have it set to an action or sports setting so that you can quickly take picture when you see an animal in the distance! The safari ride did try to stop to give people opportunities to take pictures of animals! Some of the animals that we saw included elephants, zebras, giraffes, rhinos, and flamingos! This was a very enjoyable ride.

Next, we walked around the village, and had lunch at Pizzafari! Disney did a really good job with the theming in this restaurant (as they typically do), and the pizza was really good! Next was our Fastpass reservation for Adventures Outpost, where we had our pictures taken with Safari Mickey and Minnie!

Next, we explored the Asia section. Like I said, this park is easy to navigate, and it's easy to walk between the different sections. Our favorite attraction in this section is the Maharajah Jungle Trek, which is a self-guided walking tour where you can see animals close-up behind glass. At the beginning of the tour, they gave you a guide showing the different animals that you'd be seeing, which was helpful. This was a very beautiful walk, and, as usual, Disney did an excellent job with the theming. I especially enjoyed seeing the tigers here! This walk also included an aviary where you can see various birds.

Next, we returned to the Africa section for our next Fastpass reservation: the Festival of the Lion King! This was a live Broadway-style show based on the Lion King, and we enjoyed it a lot! After that, we went on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, which was another beautiful self-guided walking trail, similar to the one in the Asia section. Some of the animals we saw here included gorillas and zebras.

We were considering taking the train ride to Rafiki's Planet Watch. However, our impression was that it would be more for kids, and it was getting close to closing time, and we wanted to be sure that we had time to explore the World Showcase at EPCOT. Like I said, Disney World has so much to see, and given the short duration of our trip, there was not time to see everything!

Since we had already done the safari ride, we did not need our FastPass reservation. Surprisingly, there was no way to cancel it; we were told to just let it expire. That was surprising, since if we were allowed to cancel it, it would have allowed someone else to make a reservation. Although, on an off-peak day like today, that was probably moot, but I can see it being a problem during peak times.

We really enjoyed the Animal Kingdom, since it was such a unique park, and we both like animals a lot. On the way out, we purchased our Safari Mickey and Minnie photos; they were available at a gift shop near the entrance. And then we took the bus to EPCOT. Disney's buses make it very easy to get from one park to another. The park maps explain how to get where you want to go when leaving a park (in this case, take the bus to EPCOT), and everything is very clearly signed.

We rented a locker at EPCOT so that we could store our Safari Mickey and Minnie photo. I was surprised that the lockers used a key, and were one of the few things at Disney not to use the Magic Bands. We walked to the World Showcase area, and it started to pour! Luckily, we found a covered area by the restrooms so we didn't get wet. Luckily, the rain didn't last very long, so we had plenty of time to explore the World Showcase!

Last night, we had visited Mexico, Norway, and China. We briefly visited those section so that I could take pictures in the daylight; it was hard to take pictures last night when it was dark. In between China and Germany, there was the oupost, which has an African theme. I've heard rumors that if a new nation is ever added, it would go here.

Next, we visited Germarny. Although we had dinner in Germany last night, we didn't get to explore the area in detail, so we explored it in more detail tonight. In each nation that we visited tonight, we mostly walked around and enjoyed the architecture, and went inside the various shops, and took a lot of pictures! We didn't have time to see any of the shows that were offered. As I said before, Disney did such a great job of capturing the feel of each nation, and this was a very unique attraction! I don't necessarily have a lot of detailed comments about each nation. Next was Italy, which was especially interesting for us to see, since my wife and I are both Italian-American. Next was The American adventure, which was the halfway point in the World Showcase. This exhibit featured a show, which was probably very interesting, but we didn't have time to see it. Next was Japan. This exhibit had very interesting architecture, and I enjoyed seeing the pond with the fish. Next was Morocco. This exhibit was especially interesting since the architecture was very unique. Aladin seemed to be prominently featured in this section.

We arrived in France around the time of our dinner reservation at Chefs de France! We had another exccellent meal at this restaurant. This is a sit down restaurant, and you are seated at a table by yourself. We opted for the price fix menu, which included an apetizer, entree, and dessert, since it seemed like a good value. You can also order ala carte if you prefer. One other thing that I should mention about the restaurants is that you do not have to dress up for them. You can wear shorts, or whatever you are wearing at the park, which makes things very convenient.

After dinner, we explored the rest of the France exhibit, and then explored the last two nations: United Kingdom, and Canada. It was then close to closing time, so we walked back and took the bus back to our resort, this time going back to Trinidad North, since we had no need to go back to the gift shop today. It was sad ending our last day at Disney World, although we were excited about our cruise tomorrow! We were tempted to use the pool again (this was the one night that we were back at the resort early enough), but we were tired, and needed to pack, and we were getting up earlier tomorrow to go to church. So we just re-packed and went to bed.

If you are going on a Disney cruise after your stay at Disney World, there will be a note in your room the last night giving instructions. In our case, it said that they will pick up our luggage from the room at 8 AM, and that we meet at Shutters at 12:15 PM. It is very convenient how Disney picks up your luggage in the morning, and delivers it to your stateroom on the ship, so that you don't have to carry it around yourself. But the catch is that since they pick it up early in the morning, you will want your large bags to be completely packed in the night before you go to bed. Be sure to put your Disney Cruise lugage tags on your luggage, and be sure to remove your Magical Express tag and the tag from your airline. Also, be sure to have a carryon bag that has anything that you will need the next day, since you won't have access to your luggage until it is delivered to your stateroom on the ship during the afternoon. We also called the concierge desk, and they gave us the phone number to call to book a cab to take us to church in the morning. It seems that there are several different brand names for cabs, but they are all run by Mears.

 

[mitsguy2001]

Sunday, September 7, 2014 (Leaving Disney World, and starting the cruise)

They picked up our luggage at 8 AM today, as they said they would. We then had our final breakfast at the Old Port Royale food court. And we had a cab meet us outside Old Port Royale to take us to church. We are Catholic, and we went to the 9:30 AM Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe. This was a short ride since the church is right off of I-4. This was a very beautiful church; the grounds looked like it would have been really nice to walk around, although my feet were still tired and sore from our time at Disney World, so I preferred to just sit while waiting for the Mass to begin (if we had an extended stay at Disney World, rather than going on the cruise, today probably would have been the day to relax and enjoy our resort, rather than going to a park). I don't remember the name of the priest, but I liked him very much. He was very welcoming both to visitors to the parish (a good thing, since many would be visitors at Disney World) and to people who may have been away from the Catholic Church for a while. I always like seeing priests who are welcoming to people.

We had asked the cab driver to meet us at the taxi stand after Mass, since we wanted to be sure to get back to our room before we needed to check out. In reality, there were many cabs waiting there. We took the cab back to our rom at Trinidad North. It was close to checkout time, so we changed into shorts, and packed our carryon bags, and walked to Old Port Royale. Disney's express checkout is very convenient since it does not require you to return to the Customs House. Again, this is another reason why proximity to Old Port Royale is desireable, but proximity to the Customs House is not important, since you won't need to go there after checking in.

One thing I should mention is that, unless I missed it, we did not receive a paper statement showing our room charges. We were under the impression we would receive an e-mailed statement after checking out, but we did not (we eventually called a week later to request a statement). Does Disney not give paper statements, or did we just not see ours for some reason?

We had a little over an hour until we had to check in for our bus. I had a snack at Old Port Royale. I was surprised that the Magic Bands still allowed us to charge to our room even after checkout time. At 12:15, we went to Shutters to meet our bus. I was surprised that we were the only people staying at Caribbean Beach who were taking the bus to the cruise. I would have expected Caribbean Beach to be especially popular with people going on the cruise, since it seems like a nice preview of the Caribbean! The bus first stopped at the Art of Animation resort where a lot of people boarded, and then went to Port Canaveral. It started pouring as soon as we got on the bus, but the weather improved by the time we got to the port!

I will continue with a review of the cruise, posted in the cruise review forum. When I finish writing it, I will post a link to it.

 

[mitsguy2001]

Here is the link to the review of the cruise portion of my trip:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=52368887&posted=1#post52368887

 

[mitsguy2001]

Since nobody has responded: I mentioned that both times I went on Soarin', they put us in the back row, which goes up the least. Is there a real difference in the experience if you are in one of the front rows that goes up higher? Is it significantly more exciting, or mostly the same? Like I said, I was hoping to try a different row, but that was not meant to be.

 

[bpd528]

Great review, as I said on your Dream portion of trip review, we are staying at CBR AFTER our cruise. Enjoyed your comments about the resort, as a note, I didn't relize that Custom House and Old Port royale were at different locations, even after looking at the maps, I was just checking the locations of the "villages" to Port Royale. Was Trinidad North a Pirate Themed room? As I think I stated, we were thinking Jamaica or Aruba that have already been refebushied.

Again thanks for both reviews, always good to hear for like minded folks.

 

[mitsguy2001]

Great review, as I said on your Dream portion of trip review, we are staying at CBR AFTER our cruise. Enjoyed your comments about the resort, as a note, I didn't relize that Custom House and Old Port royale were at different locations, even after looking at the maps, I was just checking the locations of the "villages" to Port Royale. Was Trinidad North a Pirate Themed room? As I think I stated, we were thinking Jamaica or Aruba that have already been refebushied.

Again thanks for both reviews, always good to hear for like minded folks.

As I said in my review, proximity to Old Port Royale is more important than proximity to the Customs House, since you will be going to Old Port Royale a lot, but you only go to the Customs House once. Jamaica and Aruba I believe are further away from Old Port Royale, but I think you are right that they have been refurbished. No, the room that I had in Trinidad North was not a Pirate Themed room. I believe that those are in Trinidad South, which is one of the further villages from Old Port Royale.

 

[stephensmum]

Since nobody has responded: I mentioned that both times I went on Soarin', they put us in the back row, which goes up the least. Is there a real difference in the experience if you are in one of the front rows that goes up higher? Is it significantly more exciting, or mostly the same? Like I said, I was hoping to try a different row, but that was not meant to be.

On the front row that goes up the highest you don't see rows of feet, so I think it feels more real. I love this ride and it is good no matter way you sit.

 

[stephensmum]

On the front row that goes up the highest you don't see rows of feet, so I think it feels more real. I love this ride and it is good no matter way you sit.

I really have enjoyed your report, I started with the cruise part ad I was just considering the same one. Enjoyed your style of writing so much that I went on to read the stay part, I have stayed at and liked cbr but enjoyed it through your eyes. Thanks for doing it.

 

[mitsguy2001]

On the front row that goes up the highest you don't see rows of feet, so I think it feels more real. I love this ride and it is good no matter way you sit.

Thanks. So, it sounds like the difference is fairly minor.

 

[mitsguy2001]

I really have enjoyed your report, I started with the cruise part ad I was just considering the same one. Enjoyed your style of writing so much that I went on to read the stay part, I have stayed at and liked cbr but enjoyed it through your eyes. Thanks for doing it.

Thank you. Glad to hear that you enjoyed reading it. Since you are considering the cruise: any questions about it?