Cayaco
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2015
This trip had a whopping two weeks of planning behind it, so to say it was rushed, well, it was.
02:00
The first of the alarms started going off at two in the morning. It was time to get up and start getting ready for a two day power trip to Disney.
02:30
The next alarm went off. Things were now in full swing. We had an hour to get ready out the door to Newark, our Disney adventure had begun.
03:30
Everyone is in the car, my wife, son (4.5) and myself, and we are off. An hour and a bit later we are in the parking garage and at the airport. Security at this time of the morning was pretty minimal and before we knew it we are at the gate and settled in for the plane to arrive, and arrive it did. A nice emply 6:30 flight to Tampa. We got to spread out with a row each and took a bit of a nap. Arrived early and went to get our car. You might be asking why we went to Tampa over Orlando, I had a couple days I needed to spend in Tampa for work, so that’s the airport I was sent to.
We got our car from Alamo, super easy. I had checked in ahead of time and had my print out so all we had to do was walk out into the lot, skip the kiosks and desks, pick a car, and get on the road. No traffic at all to Orlando, was a nice smooth drive.
10:35
We pull into our hotel, Caribbean Beach. Went to the Customs House. Room is not ready yet so we go to our section, Aruba, park right next to the bus stop, get changed, spray ourselves down with sunscreen, and get on the next Magic Kingdom bus that shows up. Bus ride was fine. Was at the park 15 or so minutes later.
Magic Kingdom time! We go through the gate and its time to have fun.
First ride is the carousel. My son loved it. Up until this point his life had been local church fairs and small tiny parks for little kids. Second ride is the carousel again, he loves riding the horses and this is the biggest one he has been on.
Next is snack time. Pinocchio’s house thing. Fries and that blue drink. Delicious. Straight onto It’s a Small World after.
Dumbo comes next. That waiting area is brilliant. Didn’t even need Dumbo, my son could have hung out in there and he never would have known the difference. He didn’t want to leave, we had to pull him along to get him to get on the ride.
More food now. Gaston’s tavern. Pork shank, completely wonderful, LeFrou’s Brew, son liked it because it’s juice, and then the cinnamon roll, we’ll skip that one next time, it wasn’t fresh or amazing like something right out of the oven. Good if you want a cinnamon roll but not a destination snack.
Now it’s time to watch the Festival of Fantasy parade. We hung out on that walkway between the two restaurants in Liberty Square. I forget their names but it was a perfect place to watch the show. My wife went and got us Dole Whips to enjoy. The parade was wonderful, one of the better ones I have seen. Tons of energy and everyone was there. Would recommend that one to everyone. The Dole Whips? Sadly, this was our biggest food let down of the whole trip. Neither of us get the hype. It tasted like a sort of ice styrofoam flavored pineapple frozen treat. It wasn’t terrible, but it was just, I don’t know, average? Not special? Sorry folks, we are in disagreement over this one being the number 1 Disney snack on earth.
From here we went on Pirates. Yay! It was the day it re-opened. Everything was cleaned up and in great working condition. Son loved it and is signing the song now that he is home.
Haunted Mansion fast pass next. What a wonderful ride! So much new stuff from when I was there 12 or so years ago. Son was scared at first but loves ghosts and got a big kick out of it when we were done.
Peter Pan ride a little later. 95 minute wait? What the heck? The Pan ride line is total madness. But fastpass for us so on we go.
18:00
Been up now for a very long time. Sure we had a little nap on the plane but it’s starting to take it’s toll. Back to the hotel we go for a little refresh. Shower, clean, freshen up. But the night’s just getting started!
19:30
Back to the park!! As we walked under the traintracks the Electric Light Parade was going by so we stopped and watched that. It’s time to go on Buzz Lightyear. Son loved it. Then we went to The Incredible’s Dance Party and get our groove on. It’s as wonderfully absurd as the videos on Youtube make it out to be. We would have stayed longer but..
20:45
Be Our Guest dinner!! Yeah that’s right. Planned this trip two weeks ago and snagged the most coveted dinner reservation at the park. I had been refreshing the dinner reservation page daily and randomly one afternoon a 9pm slot opened up. I grabbed it. Woo. While waiting for our names to be called we sat on the bridge and got to watch the fireworks which are up above The Beast’s castle. What an awesome view! Dinner time came and we go in. Neither of us wanted a big entrée. She had French onion soup and I had the meat and cheese platter. Bottle of Riesling for the table. Son had French fries and chicken. BRING US DESSERT! Grey stuff, delicious, chocolate cupcake thing, delicious, strawberry shortcake, delicious, éclair, tasted like an éclair. Went and got our picture with The beast and headed back into the park.
22:something.. time is getting fuzzy
Back out into the park! Magic hours tonight have been extended an extra extra hour so now we have until 1am to do stuff.
Winnie the Pooh had an almost nothing wait so we went on it. The interactive waiting area, even though we didn’t even need to since no one was here, we played with everything and had fun.
23:00?
Tomorrowland at night with no one around! How awesome! So much here you don’t see and hear during the day. The lights are awesome, there are space future sci fi sound effects everywhere. Time to go on The Speedway.
My son has found his most favorite thing in life.
Gets to drive his own car at 4 years old? Complete and total magic. As soon as we got off we went back on. Did we go on again? I cant remember. Went on the Astro Orbiter at some point as well. A German family on the ride at the same time as us were furious when they got off "We waited 35 minutes for this and the ride was broken! We waited and the rockets didn't move!" they told the cast member. "Did you pull back on the handle?" "Oh, no. We did not. This is what we did wrong" and they came back on the elevator with us sad.
00:00
Ahh it’s tomorrow and I have been up for almost 24 hours. Getting hard to walk. Son is being a complete trooper. We went back to mainstreet and got to some shopping with no crowds.
01:00
Back at hotel. Can’t move. Somehow made it into bed and passed out, 23 hours awake with a tiny nap on the plane. DISNEY!!
DAY 2!!
09:30
Packed up our room, packed up the car, drove to the bus stop at the hotel, and back at the bus stop and off to the park we go. Check out is at 11 and we wont be back before then.
We head over to Adventure land as today was to be pirates day! Sadly that didn’t quite work out as the ride was closed all day. Bummer. At least we rode it the day before. Instead we went on the magic carpet ride twice and went to go see the Tiki birds. We ate an Orange Swirl while in the area. Now that was everything the Dole Whip should have been. We’ll be back for more next time.
11:15
Fastpass for Haunted Mansion again. Still love it.
11:30
Sleepy Hollow for a snack. Ice cream cookie sandwich. It was huge and delicious! My wife got a parasol, just a week ago the one she got as a little girl broke apart so she was super excited to see that they still make them. Her order went in and it would be just like the one she got a long while ago.
??
Teacups were ridden somewhere in here. We went as fast as could be. Son loved it, wife got scared. For some reason when the ride stopped they told everyone to stay in their seats and we went around a second time.
12:30
Wandered back to Tomorowland. Speedway it is! Two more times!!! Then to Starlight Café to crash and eat some chicken (good feel food), fries, and a frozen something in a rocket ship. Watch Sonny puppet man do his thing for awhile as my body rebooted itself.
13:30?
Ariel’s ride fastpass. This was one was new to me and it was pretty good. There were some loading issues with some folks so we got stuck in the Under the Sea song room for quite a while. Eventually watching Ariel, which you are supposed to see for a few seconds, for 5 minutes ends up becoming a lifeless scary thing of madness. But other than that it was a great ride.
Barnstormer fastpass next. Son’s biggest coaster of his life. Huge excited eyes the whole time (which is about 30 seconds).
Went to meet Donald and Goofy next. Picturepass pictures and the folks there will also use your phone to take them as well.
14:45
Train ride around the park. Would not do again. Granted, we had a delay due to a medical emergency on the ride but still, took about an hour to get around. Oh well.
16:45 (time is being lost, I don’t remember everything, basing everything off of picture time stamps to help jog my mind)
Meandered back to Tomorrowland again, no line at SpaceMountain. Son is napping so I go off on my own. The 15 minute wait ended up being 35 as the ride broke down when I was feet away from getting on. Son still sleeping so I just hung out inside and eventually got on. Still super awesome. Line was up to 70 minutes when I got off. So I still win that one. Son wakes up. We carry him onto The People Mover and take a nice beak. But then he is awake, and in Tomorrowland, so that means more speedway!! Two more times with my son. He loves it as much as always.
Getting late now, around 7, park is closing for the non Halloween goers. One last right? Yup. Winne the Pooh to end the day. The ride was the ride but getting off and back out to the park is the story here. It was raining out, a nice Orlando downpour. I understand people want to stand under a roof to avoid getting wet but it was impossible for those of us who did have rain gear to get out of the store. We asked nicely at first, “excuse me, please can we get through, excuse me”. No one budged. People were jam packed into the exit. 10 deep and as many wide as can fit. No one was moving. No path was opened for those of us who wanted to get through. “Excuse me, coming through, excuse me.” Nothing, no one budged. “GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!!!! I NEED TO GET OUT. MOVE!!!!!!!!!” at the top of my lungs. Suddenly everyone knew where I was. Yeah, little bit of Disney rage. People responded “you could have asked nicely” “I DID!! I AM COMING THROUGH” Folks started cursing and being angry but forget them, no one moved. And out we were in our ponchos wandering back to main street with hardly a soul in sight.
We went to the big gift shop and picked up a few last things, headed to the bus stop, went back to the hotel for our car, and the day was done.
What a two days it was! We’ll be going back once my son is a little taller. He was just under the 40 inch mark this time so we missed out on a few things, but no complaints. Crowds were fine if you watched the app and knew what you were doing. See you all again in a year or so.
To summarize for those of you who just skipped to the bottom, think I remembered it all..
Hotel:
Caribbean Beach
Rides and Stuff:
Its a Small World
Carousel
Peter Pan
Winne the Pooh
Space Mountain
Ariel Under the Sea
Barnstormer
Haunted Mansion
Magic Carpet
Pirates of the Caribbean
Tiki Birds
Train around the park
Dumbo
People Mover
Tea Cups
Tomorrowland Speedway
Buzz Lightyear
Astro Orbiter
Electric Light Parade
Festival of Fantasy Parade
Incredible's Dance Party
Food:
Dole Whip
Orange Swirl
Pork Shank
Le Frou's brew
Cinnabon
Blue frozen thing
Chicken platter with beans and potates
Ice Cream sandwich
Be Our Guest: Meat platter, all the desserts, french onion soup, wine
Popcorn
French fries
and sadly the big barrels of rum outside of Pirates are in fact not filled with rum. Bummer.
02:00
The first of the alarms started going off at two in the morning. It was time to get up and start getting ready for a two day power trip to Disney.
02:30
The next alarm went off. Things were now in full swing. We had an hour to get ready out the door to Newark, our Disney adventure had begun.
03:30
Everyone is in the car, my wife, son (4.5) and myself, and we are off. An hour and a bit later we are in the parking garage and at the airport. Security at this time of the morning was pretty minimal and before we knew it we are at the gate and settled in for the plane to arrive, and arrive it did. A nice emply 6:30 flight to Tampa. We got to spread out with a row each and took a bit of a nap. Arrived early and went to get our car. You might be asking why we went to Tampa over Orlando, I had a couple days I needed to spend in Tampa for work, so that’s the airport I was sent to.
We got our car from Alamo, super easy. I had checked in ahead of time and had my print out so all we had to do was walk out into the lot, skip the kiosks and desks, pick a car, and get on the road. No traffic at all to Orlando, was a nice smooth drive.
10:35
We pull into our hotel, Caribbean Beach. Went to the Customs House. Room is not ready yet so we go to our section, Aruba, park right next to the bus stop, get changed, spray ourselves down with sunscreen, and get on the next Magic Kingdom bus that shows up. Bus ride was fine. Was at the park 15 or so minutes later.
Magic Kingdom time! We go through the gate and its time to have fun.
First ride is the carousel. My son loved it. Up until this point his life had been local church fairs and small tiny parks for little kids. Second ride is the carousel again, he loves riding the horses and this is the biggest one he has been on.
Next is snack time. Pinocchio’s house thing. Fries and that blue drink. Delicious. Straight onto It’s a Small World after.
Dumbo comes next. That waiting area is brilliant. Didn’t even need Dumbo, my son could have hung out in there and he never would have known the difference. He didn’t want to leave, we had to pull him along to get him to get on the ride.
More food now. Gaston’s tavern. Pork shank, completely wonderful, LeFrou’s Brew, son liked it because it’s juice, and then the cinnamon roll, we’ll skip that one next time, it wasn’t fresh or amazing like something right out of the oven. Good if you want a cinnamon roll but not a destination snack.
Now it’s time to watch the Festival of Fantasy parade. We hung out on that walkway between the two restaurants in Liberty Square. I forget their names but it was a perfect place to watch the show. My wife went and got us Dole Whips to enjoy. The parade was wonderful, one of the better ones I have seen. Tons of energy and everyone was there. Would recommend that one to everyone. The Dole Whips? Sadly, this was our biggest food let down of the whole trip. Neither of us get the hype. It tasted like a sort of ice styrofoam flavored pineapple frozen treat. It wasn’t terrible, but it was just, I don’t know, average? Not special? Sorry folks, we are in disagreement over this one being the number 1 Disney snack on earth.
From here we went on Pirates. Yay! It was the day it re-opened. Everything was cleaned up and in great working condition. Son loved it and is signing the song now that he is home.
Haunted Mansion fast pass next. What a wonderful ride! So much new stuff from when I was there 12 or so years ago. Son was scared at first but loves ghosts and got a big kick out of it when we were done.
Peter Pan ride a little later. 95 minute wait? What the heck? The Pan ride line is total madness. But fastpass for us so on we go.
18:00
Been up now for a very long time. Sure we had a little nap on the plane but it’s starting to take it’s toll. Back to the hotel we go for a little refresh. Shower, clean, freshen up. But the night’s just getting started!
19:30
Back to the park!! As we walked under the traintracks the Electric Light Parade was going by so we stopped and watched that. It’s time to go on Buzz Lightyear. Son loved it. Then we went to The Incredible’s Dance Party and get our groove on. It’s as wonderfully absurd as the videos on Youtube make it out to be. We would have stayed longer but..
20:45
Be Our Guest dinner!! Yeah that’s right. Planned this trip two weeks ago and snagged the most coveted dinner reservation at the park. I had been refreshing the dinner reservation page daily and randomly one afternoon a 9pm slot opened up. I grabbed it. Woo. While waiting for our names to be called we sat on the bridge and got to watch the fireworks which are up above The Beast’s castle. What an awesome view! Dinner time came and we go in. Neither of us wanted a big entrée. She had French onion soup and I had the meat and cheese platter. Bottle of Riesling for the table. Son had French fries and chicken. BRING US DESSERT! Grey stuff, delicious, chocolate cupcake thing, delicious, strawberry shortcake, delicious, éclair, tasted like an éclair. Went and got our picture with The beast and headed back into the park.
22:something.. time is getting fuzzy
Back out into the park! Magic hours tonight have been extended an extra extra hour so now we have until 1am to do stuff.
Winnie the Pooh had an almost nothing wait so we went on it. The interactive waiting area, even though we didn’t even need to since no one was here, we played with everything and had fun.
23:00?
Tomorrowland at night with no one around! How awesome! So much here you don’t see and hear during the day. The lights are awesome, there are space future sci fi sound effects everywhere. Time to go on The Speedway.
My son has found his most favorite thing in life.
Gets to drive his own car at 4 years old? Complete and total magic. As soon as we got off we went back on. Did we go on again? I cant remember. Went on the Astro Orbiter at some point as well. A German family on the ride at the same time as us were furious when they got off "We waited 35 minutes for this and the ride was broken! We waited and the rockets didn't move!" they told the cast member. "Did you pull back on the handle?" "Oh, no. We did not. This is what we did wrong" and they came back on the elevator with us sad.
00:00
Ahh it’s tomorrow and I have been up for almost 24 hours. Getting hard to walk. Son is being a complete trooper. We went back to mainstreet and got to some shopping with no crowds.
01:00
Back at hotel. Can’t move. Somehow made it into bed and passed out, 23 hours awake with a tiny nap on the plane. DISNEY!!
DAY 2!!
09:30
Packed up our room, packed up the car, drove to the bus stop at the hotel, and back at the bus stop and off to the park we go. Check out is at 11 and we wont be back before then.
We head over to Adventure land as today was to be pirates day! Sadly that didn’t quite work out as the ride was closed all day. Bummer. At least we rode it the day before. Instead we went on the magic carpet ride twice and went to go see the Tiki birds. We ate an Orange Swirl while in the area. Now that was everything the Dole Whip should have been. We’ll be back for more next time.
11:15
Fastpass for Haunted Mansion again. Still love it.
11:30
Sleepy Hollow for a snack. Ice cream cookie sandwich. It was huge and delicious! My wife got a parasol, just a week ago the one she got as a little girl broke apart so she was super excited to see that they still make them. Her order went in and it would be just like the one she got a long while ago.
??
Teacups were ridden somewhere in here. We went as fast as could be. Son loved it, wife got scared. For some reason when the ride stopped they told everyone to stay in their seats and we went around a second time.
12:30
Wandered back to Tomorowland. Speedway it is! Two more times!!! Then to Starlight Café to crash and eat some chicken (good feel food), fries, and a frozen something in a rocket ship. Watch Sonny puppet man do his thing for awhile as my body rebooted itself.
13:30?
Ariel’s ride fastpass. This was one was new to me and it was pretty good. There were some loading issues with some folks so we got stuck in the Under the Sea song room for quite a while. Eventually watching Ariel, which you are supposed to see for a few seconds, for 5 minutes ends up becoming a lifeless scary thing of madness. But other than that it was a great ride.
Barnstormer fastpass next. Son’s biggest coaster of his life. Huge excited eyes the whole time (which is about 30 seconds).
Went to meet Donald and Goofy next. Picturepass pictures and the folks there will also use your phone to take them as well.
14:45
Train ride around the park. Would not do again. Granted, we had a delay due to a medical emergency on the ride but still, took about an hour to get around. Oh well.
16:45 (time is being lost, I don’t remember everything, basing everything off of picture time stamps to help jog my mind)
Meandered back to Tomorrowland again, no line at SpaceMountain. Son is napping so I go off on my own. The 15 minute wait ended up being 35 as the ride broke down when I was feet away from getting on. Son still sleeping so I just hung out inside and eventually got on. Still super awesome. Line was up to 70 minutes when I got off. So I still win that one. Son wakes up. We carry him onto The People Mover and take a nice beak. But then he is awake, and in Tomorrowland, so that means more speedway!! Two more times with my son. He loves it as much as always.
Getting late now, around 7, park is closing for the non Halloween goers. One last right? Yup. Winne the Pooh to end the day. The ride was the ride but getting off and back out to the park is the story here. It was raining out, a nice Orlando downpour. I understand people want to stand under a roof to avoid getting wet but it was impossible for those of us who did have rain gear to get out of the store. We asked nicely at first, “excuse me, please can we get through, excuse me”. No one budged. People were jam packed into the exit. 10 deep and as many wide as can fit. No one was moving. No path was opened for those of us who wanted to get through. “Excuse me, coming through, excuse me.” Nothing, no one budged. “GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!!!! I NEED TO GET OUT. MOVE!!!!!!!!!” at the top of my lungs. Suddenly everyone knew where I was. Yeah, little bit of Disney rage. People responded “you could have asked nicely” “I DID!! I AM COMING THROUGH” Folks started cursing and being angry but forget them, no one moved. And out we were in our ponchos wandering back to main street with hardly a soul in sight.
We went to the big gift shop and picked up a few last things, headed to the bus stop, went back to the hotel for our car, and the day was done.
What a two days it was! We’ll be going back once my son is a little taller. He was just under the 40 inch mark this time so we missed out on a few things, but no complaints. Crowds were fine if you watched the app and knew what you were doing. See you all again in a year or so.
To summarize for those of you who just skipped to the bottom, think I remembered it all..
Hotel:
Caribbean Beach
Rides and Stuff:
Its a Small World
Carousel
Peter Pan
Winne the Pooh
Space Mountain
Ariel Under the Sea
Barnstormer
Haunted Mansion
Magic Carpet
Pirates of the Caribbean
Tiki Birds
Train around the park
Dumbo
People Mover
Tea Cups
Tomorrowland Speedway
Buzz Lightyear
Astro Orbiter
Electric Light Parade
Festival of Fantasy Parade
Incredible's Dance Party
Food:
Dole Whip
Orange Swirl
Pork Shank
Le Frou's brew
Cinnabon
Blue frozen thing
Chicken platter with beans and potates
Ice Cream sandwich
Be Our Guest: Meat platter, all the desserts, french onion soup, wine
Popcorn
French fries
and sadly the big barrels of rum outside of Pirates are in fact not filled with rum. Bummer.
