Here it is, my trip report. I have pictures posted at the end. Sorry for spelling and grammar errors. This took a very long time to type and one can only do so much proofreading.
Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando Florida
August 2007 Trip Report
My family and I have been traveling to Disneyworld almost every summer since as long as I can remember. We actually lost count of how many trips we’ve been on. This would be around our 12th or 13th trip (one of these days we have to look at all our old photo albums to find out the right number).
The last time I was at Disneyworld was last September for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. That was our first “ticketed event” we’ve ever been to on the property. We had allot of fun at the Halloween Party, so this year we decided to plan our annual trip to coincide with Disney’s Pirate and Princess Party. The party was wonderful. We waited on a 40min line for Captain Jack Sparrow, saw an amazing fireworks show, in which Hook actually “bombed” Cindy’s Castle, and watched the great ‘Enchanted Adventures’ Parade. We had a great time at the party.
After your 7th trip it feels like you never really left that magical place. I wish I could live there. I leave for college on Sunday (ahhhhh) and eventually I’d love to join Disney’s College Program. This year I only traveled with my Mom and Sister. Last July we went with 11 Princess obsessed little girls (I have a big family). I had a great time and as always all good things must end.
Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa
Whenever we go to Disney we usually stay at this hotel. We’ve also stayed at the Polynesian 3 or 4 times and once we stayed at the Beach Club, but for all our other trips we’ve stayed at the Floridian. I love that hotel it’s just so elegant. It just gorgeous to look at. I love to walk around the property. We stayed in the ‘Conch Key ‘building, which was just recently re-done. It had new furniture, wallpaper, carpeting, tiles, and a very nice flat screen T.V., it really looked nice.
Magic Kingdom
This is the best thing on the property. I love getting off the monorail (please stand clear of the doors!!!!) and walking onto main street. Cinderella’s Castle is just magical. I feel like a 4year old when I’m there. The park was very crowded. Mostly with very, very RUDE non-English speaking people. I don’t mean to sound cruel but it’s VERY annoying…not that they don’t speak English…that their RUDE.
Pirates now garners HUGE lines. It’s insane. We only went on pirates twice in a six day trip. Another ride that is impossible to get on is Peter Pan. It has 2 hour lines for a 2 minute ride. If people knew how short the ride was I doubt they’d wait on those lines. We were only able to ride Peter Pan at the Pirate and Princess Party using fastpass. We waited on no lines in the Magic Kingdom we would fastpass everything or ride during Extra Magic Hours. During the day we’d fastpass, eat, and watch the various shows/parades.
My favorite thing in the Magic Kingdom is ‘Mickey’s Philarmagic’. It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. It’s pure Disney. A new treat for us was ‘Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor Comedy Club’. It was so cute, very interactive, and all the kids in the audience loved it. Disney needs to do more things like this...where the characters directly interact with the audience. Maybe once Tinkerbell gets a voice she’ll have a similar attraction.
We’re the type of family that does all the parks in one day. We run around more times than any one person should. But we make sure we get to everything and have fun in the process. So each night we’d pick what show we wanted to watch. On Sunday night we saw ‘Wishes’. I LOVE that show. I’m the person who knows the soundtrack by heart and is mouthing all the words. My iPod contains over 200 Park Music tracks. That’s all I do is listen and watch video and audio from the parks. I know all the parades and shows by heart.
I love Princess Aurora, so no trip is complete unless I meet her, so we ventured into the Judge’s Tent at Mickey’s Toontown Fair. The line was only 25 minutes, so we decided to wait. I really liked how they have the character greetings set up. All the princesses were waiting just for your party…and you could spend as much time as you wanted with them. Aurora actually came up to us on the line to take us over to the other princesses. It was allot of fun and I had great chats with Aurora, Cinderella, and Belle. I love interacting with them…it’s like you’re really talking to the real thing…it’s magical and pure Disney. It things like that, that make the entire Vacation.
The best Restaurants in the Magic Kingdom are ‘Tony’s Town Square Restaurant’, and ‘The Crystal Palace’ (Pooh!!). We also ate at ‘Pinocchio’s Village Haus’ on many occasions. It’s the cleanest of the Magic Kingdom’s “quick service” food stations.
‘Dream Along With Mickey’ is the best Castle Stage Show I’ve ever seen. It’s amazing, especially since Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald now have talking heads and blinking eyes. It’s also great to see Hook as a face character, and Maleficent of course! Last September we saw the very first performance of the show. The only changes that have been made are new fireworks and special effects, and the new talking characters. I must have seen that show at least ten times during the trip. I’d stand in the front and mouth all the words!
The Parades in the Magic Kingdom are nice, but need to be replaced. I love them...I really do, but the other parks across the world have much better parades. I love the afternoon ‘Dreams Come True Parade’. The villains are in it, which makes it better…but the parade screams FRANCHISE. It’s all the most popular marketable characters…at least Spectromagic has rare characters in it. But that’s also due to the time period in which each parade debuted. For example Spectomagic only features Snow White and Cinderella…no other princesses, because the parade debuted before the Princess Line. Spectromagic seemed to be better than it was last year…the lighting seemed better and those Scary clowns now have painted on faces…no more masks…which make them even scarier. All the lights were working and it seemed as if Disney gave the parade a much needed “spring cleaning”. Disney can do so much better than those two parades. I want to see a new Spectromagic using the latest technology featuring a new soundtrack… but not replacing the musical score that is Spectromagic.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
It’s come a long way since I first visited it in 1998. Everest being the best thing there. We rode Everest 3 times….with NO WAIT!! We had just finished watching the ‘Finding Nemo Stage Show’ and it was 10 minutes until park closing. We decide to run over to Everest…No one was there. The first time we waited 7minuites then we got off and ran back on two more times. It was GREAT. That is my second favorite ride at Disneyworld (first being Tower of Terror). That Yeti looks like it’s going to pick you up out of your seat and eat you. It’s the most amazing animatronic (sp?) I’ve ever seen. We also rode ‘Dinosaur’…that ride is so scary…but very fun.
We also saw, as I mentioned above, the Finding Nemo stage show. It was cute, the puppets were amazing, and the actors were very talented…but the money could have went elsewhere. The music is horrible, the songs in Cinderella II are better. I was disappointed. I also HATE how Pixar seems to be taking over.
We also saw ‘Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Parade’, for the first time. We realized that we never ever saw that parade. It was cute and fun but not worth viewing again (unless you LOVE Baloo and Louie, because it seems that this is the only place where you can see them). We Did not go on the Kali River Rapids this year…we didn’t feel like getting wet.
Disney-MGM (Hollywood) Studios
I love this park for two reasons…..the rides, and the Villains. We rode the Tower of Terror 3 times on different occasions with Fastpass. One time they forgot to collect our fastpasses so we went on again. I love that ride…the theming…the eerie-ness…and the drops. It’s my favorite attraction in Disneyworld. We also enjoyed the ‘Rock-in-Rollercoaster’. It’s a fun ride that gives you a big thrill. We only went on this once.
The ‘Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade’ is a very nice parade…but it’s too slow and it’s nothing special. I love it because it represents the Hollywood feel of the park…and has my favorite Villains in it. I am very mad that it will be replaced with Pixar’s ‘Block Party Bash’. This parade will have nothing to do with the Hollywood aspect of the park…it’s just a big advertisement for the upcoming ‘Toy Story Mania’ attraction and ‘Pixar Place’. It has nothing to do with Hollywood.
‘Villains in Vogue’ and ‘Sweet Spells’ is the store located on Sunset Blvd. It totally themed to the Villains but that’s where it ends. The merchandise is all pirates and Nightmare. It’s sad because I remember all the great Villain merchandise that I used to get there...from desk accessories, to collectibles, to home décor, to clothing, all featuring the Villains. Now the Villains have been reduced to a shelf in their own store. The only Villain merchandise in the store is two books, a few plush dragons, a beach towel, 4 pins, an Evil Queen salt/pepper shaker, and new ‘Maleficent/Evil Queen handbags and shirts. It’s really sad. At least the Villain theme still exists all throughout the store, expect for the big “Si and Am” shelving. They have been replaced with a skeleton pirate and Pirates logo. It makes me very upset. I also hate how all the merchandise is generic. Every store sells the same merchandise. I remember when each store would have exclusive merchandise…now it’s all generic merchandise. It’s really sad.
We also saw ‘Fantasmic!’…but only once. It was too crowded to see more than once. We ended getting to Fantasmic! two hours before they opened. It was packed . Then little by little in sections they took us like cattle to the seating. It was very interesting . I was in front of the line and ran to get a great seat. The people were animals pushing and hitting people, running and acting like savages to get to the seating. Whole families pushing and hitting people to get ahead. It was madness. One family pushed my sister onto the ground while they passed and stood in front of her so she could not get up and take their spot. My mom was screaming at them and was trying to get a cast member but there was too much confusion. I was in the front of the line so I did not witness any of this. My sister cried waiting for the show to start. We got dead center seats and I got a great video. We saw the family who pushed my sister. They ended up sitting in the very front…they got Soaked. We were laughing so hard. As Fantasmic! proves…the villains always get it in the end. I love Fantasmic! (obviously). It’s a show all about the Villains. We also saw ‘Lights Motor Action Extreme Stunt Show’. WOW that was amazing. It was very cool to watch!!!
Epcot
It was so strange seeing Spaceship Earth without the Wand. The only thing left were the stars. I liked the wand. It actually showed people that Epcot was Disney. Despite the rides, characters, and merchandise I’ve met a handful of people who think Epoct is owned by Universal. For the first time in years we saw ‘Illuminations’. It is such a great fireworks show, but it’s not Disney. I don’t know how else to describe it. If I watched it online and knew nothing about it…I would never think it was Disney.
We rode Test Track and Soarin’, two fantastic rides. I love the feeling you get on Soarin’…it’s just an amazing ride. My sister LOVES Figment but we don’t go on the ride any more…it’s just very dull. It’s in desperate need of an update. She did, of course, visit the Figment gift shop…lol.
For the very first time we attended the Princess Dinner in Norway. It was very nice. As we entered we met Belle who posed for pictures and autographs. We were then seated. We had a wonderful waiter from Norway, Casper. He was very nice and he taught us a little about Norway. Then Ariel, Aurora, Cinderella, and Jasmine, came to greet us. I love the princesses especially when their in character…I love to interact with them. I had a Maleficent pen with me and when Cinderella signed my book she asked me allot of questions. I had to explain to her that I love the princesses more than the villains and that I’ve seen Cinderella III countless times. She laughed…but then when we posed for pictures she noticed my two Villain pins and started up again…it was allot of fun. I had similar experiences with the other princesses and I loved every minute of it.
Aurora is my favorite character so I was ecstatic as always to see her, but the Aurora at this dinner did some things that the real Aurora would never do. Aurora was posing for a picture with a little girl, at the table before ours, and then another little girl walked in front of the picture. Aurora said “oh look another little princess” and pushed the girl across the room…and then resumed her photo. The entire restaurant was laughing, but Aurora was too pre-occupied with her photo to care. She then came to our table. After explaining to her that she was my favorite Disney character and how much I love her, I asked her to sign my Autograph book. She took one look at the Maleficent pen and said “oh my...you say you love me but yet you also like the person who tried to kill me!”, I laughed, she then went on to say “Prince Phillip would not be too happy if I used this pen” she then threw the pen onto the table and pulled a purple sharpie out of her sleeve. After she left we could not stop laughing. It was allot of fun.
Disney’s Pirate and Princess Party
WOW, was this allot of fun. It wasn’t as good as ‘Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party”, but it was still allot of fun. We entered the Magic Kingdom about 40 minutes before the party started, but everything was already set up. We got our wristbands and walked down a red carpet until we entered the park…it was very cute. Once the party started the park was virtually empty. The first thing we did was wait on line to meet Captain Jack Sparrow. The line was only about 40 minutes long…which I hear is a short wait time. I read on other forums about people who have waited 2 hours at previous parties to meet him. It was allot of fun. We then rode a few rides…got some pineapple ice cream in Adventureland. Then we staked out a spot for the fireworks, “Music Magic and Mayhem”. They were incredible. The princess part of the fireworks, in the beginning, had great music but was very boring. There was a great part between Flora and Merrywether , fighting and creating Pink and Blue fireworks. It was funny. Then Captain Hook interrupted King Triton and began bombing the castle. There were allot of perimeter fireworks….it was just amazing to see. The soundtrack was great to, you had the Fairy Godmother and Triton arguing with Hook to stop…it was too funny. Then Tinkerbell came with her pixie dust and saved the day. It was enthralling to see. We then got a spot for the “Enchanted Adventures” parade, right by the castle. It was very cute. It featured everyone’s favorite princesses and beautiful horses and costumes. There was also a new Pirate ship float and a huge robot of Tic Toc, the crocodile from Peter Pan. It was a very cute Parade.
Well that’s my Disney Vacation Trip Report. If you read the entire thing, Thanks, it took a very long time to type. If you have any questions or want me to go into more detail about something just ask.
Here is a link to the Pictures:
I'm the boy and I'm with my Sister and my Mom
http://picasaweb.google.com/disneyvault ... fp9eBfYs4c
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. I've been having a busy, but fun summer...with a few little vacations, college planning, and High School Graduation. Now as the summer draws to an end my family and I will be taking our annual summer trip to my favorite place on the planet, Walt Disneyworld. I am beyond excited. The last time I was there was in September for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. I had a great time there; it was a Villain lover’s dream. 
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. Time to return to the real world. I had allot of fun on this trip. I'll be posting a full trip report, a ton of pictures, and lots of great video in the next several days. It feels horrible to be back from the greatest place on earth.
I take back my last statement. I love the Finding Nemo Musical soundtrack!! I sing it all the time! Randomly! It's incredibly simple melodies and lyrics are super fun! 
