The Honeymoon: Being There, Part 1
First, I have to admit that we went ahead and bought the super-duper tickets. They're good for seven days, they have the park hopper option, and they never expire. We figure that as long as we manage to not lose them, then it's a good deal. I mean, it's a pretty good bet that the ticket price will only go up, you know?
We also splurged a bit by staying in an actual Disney resort (Coronado Springs), rather than one of the cheaper surrounding area hotels. The trade off was that we didn't bother renting a car, which easily saved us the extra we spent on the hotel, but meant we were trapped in Disney's hands for all of our food. Staying in a Disney resort had the added advantage of allowing us to enter the parks early and stay late on certain days. In the end, we both felt staying at the resort was a good move. It was certainly a very nice hotel.
We first went to the parks on Tuesday. We hit MGM Studios in the morning (since it opened early that day) and then the new Animal Kingdom in the afternoon, and finally headed back to MGM to catch the evening laser show. While we were at MGM we of course went to see the Muppets, Indiana Jones, the Great Movie Ride and Star Tours. We also managed to ride on the new Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coaster--a very fast indoor roller coaster--and catch a preview show of a new attraction; Lights, Motor, Action! It's basically a car/motorcycle stunt show that takes you through the different steps involved with making a stunt sequence for a movie. It was cool, but a little long and certainly not quite yet polished enough for prime time.
The Animal Kingdom had some of that same feel, they're currently building a new roller coaster, but the whole place feels like it doesn't have quite as much to do as the other parks. We were surprised to see Sue on display there! They had her set up outside! But maybe it's silly to think she'd need to be kept indoors, she did weather being buried for 65 million years or so.
Wednesday we attacked the Magic Kingdom, and we were on fire. This was our best day as far as hitting the rides efficiently, it helped that we had finally mastered the fast pass procedure. We spent the morning in Tomorrowland, of course. Riding the old standard, Space Mountain first thing, followed by the new Buzz Lightyear ride where you ride in a slow moving car like in Haunted Mansion but get a laser to zap at hundreds of targets for points. Too bad it was a low power red laser that I could barely see, not that I would make excuses, and Tamara beat me senseless. We also got went in to the new Stich ride and realized too late that it was actually just a redressing of that awful Alien Encounter or whatever it was called. Luckily, the Stich version is toned down and much better.
After that full morning (it was only 11am by then, but eating early is necessary to avoid the ridiculous noon rush), we stopped for lunch at the Starlight Cafe. Whenever you're in Disney World next, go to the Starlight Cafe for lunch, just trust me. The food there was great, and in the park food is an area that Disney as gotten much better in recently. When I was there last, I remember every restaurant as basically having burger, pizza, or chicken tenders with only the packaging changing depending on the theme of the restaurant, well it's not so anymore and the Starlight Cafe was one of the best quick restaurants that we ate at. But the real attraction is the anamatronic lounge singer. He sang songs about gravity. He was awesome.
After that we went on to catch the rest of the old standards, the People Mover, Thunder Mountain, Pirates, Small World, Haunted Mansion and Peter Pan. We also caught a new 3-D movie, like the muppets, that went through classic disney music with the famous characters. It was really good and nice to see Mickey, Donald and the gang back in the spotlight.
Later that night, after the fireworks, we got our wristbands so we could stay after the park had closed for the non-resort guests. We managed to hit Space Mountain, the People Mover and Buzz Lightyear again (this time I managed to beat Tamara with a few lucky shots) before finally heading back to the hotel at about 2am.
Ok, this has gotten really long so I'm going to break it off here. Stay tuned for more soon!
-Tim
We also splurged a bit by staying in an actual Disney resort (Coronado Springs), rather than one of the cheaper surrounding area hotels. The trade off was that we didn't bother renting a car, which easily saved us the extra we spent on the hotel, but meant we were trapped in Disney's hands for all of our food. Staying in a Disney resort had the added advantage of allowing us to enter the parks early and stay late on certain days. In the end, we both felt staying at the resort was a good move. It was certainly a very nice hotel.
We first went to the parks on Tuesday. We hit MGM Studios in the morning (since it opened early that day) and then the new Animal Kingdom in the afternoon, and finally headed back to MGM to catch the evening laser show. While we were at MGM we of course went to see the Muppets, Indiana Jones, the Great Movie Ride and Star Tours. We also managed to ride on the new Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coaster--a very fast indoor roller coaster--and catch a preview show of a new attraction; Lights, Motor, Action! It's basically a car/motorcycle stunt show that takes you through the different steps involved with making a stunt sequence for a movie. It was cool, but a little long and certainly not quite yet polished enough for prime time.
The Animal Kingdom had some of that same feel, they're currently building a new roller coaster, but the whole place feels like it doesn't have quite as much to do as the other parks. We were surprised to see Sue on display there! They had her set up outside! But maybe it's silly to think she'd need to be kept indoors, she did weather being buried for 65 million years or so.
Wednesday we attacked the Magic Kingdom, and we were on fire. This was our best day as far as hitting the rides efficiently, it helped that we had finally mastered the fast pass procedure. We spent the morning in Tomorrowland, of course. Riding the old standard, Space Mountain first thing, followed by the new Buzz Lightyear ride where you ride in a slow moving car like in Haunted Mansion but get a laser to zap at hundreds of targets for points. Too bad it was a low power red laser that I could barely see, not that I would make excuses, and Tamara beat me senseless. We also got went in to the new Stich ride and realized too late that it was actually just a redressing of that awful Alien Encounter or whatever it was called. Luckily, the Stich version is toned down and much better.
After that full morning (it was only 11am by then, but eating early is necessary to avoid the ridiculous noon rush), we stopped for lunch at the Starlight Cafe. Whenever you're in Disney World next, go to the Starlight Cafe for lunch, just trust me. The food there was great, and in the park food is an area that Disney as gotten much better in recently. When I was there last, I remember every restaurant as basically having burger, pizza, or chicken tenders with only the packaging changing depending on the theme of the restaurant, well it's not so anymore and the Starlight Cafe was one of the best quick restaurants that we ate at. But the real attraction is the anamatronic lounge singer. He sang songs about gravity. He was awesome.
After that we went on to catch the rest of the old standards, the People Mover, Thunder Mountain, Pirates, Small World, Haunted Mansion and Peter Pan. We also caught a new 3-D movie, like the muppets, that went through classic disney music with the famous characters. It was really good and nice to see Mickey, Donald and the gang back in the spotlight.
Later that night, after the fireworks, we got our wristbands so we could stay after the park had closed for the non-resort guests. We managed to hit Space Mountain, the People Mover and Buzz Lightyear again (this time I managed to beat Tamara with a few lucky shots) before finally heading back to the hotel at about 2am.
Ok, this has gotten really long so I'm going to break it off here. Stay tuned for more soon!
-Tim
posted by tjmcardl | 10:36 PM
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