Hey all! Here's the first day of our trip report! Have fun reading and feel free to ask any questions! (Pictures will follow soon!)
September 13, 2005
We got up very early today: 6.45 am and left to the airport around 8am. Since it was our first time in an airport, we got some help from a Belgian police officer who directed us to the right check point. The United Boeing 767 had left the ground around 12.30 pm and flew in the direction of Washington.
We had small television screens in the seats in front of us showing some neat movies and shows, including the Hitchhikers Guide into the Galaxy and Disney Channel programs (American Dragon, Lilo & Stitch series, ...)
We requested for vegetarian meals upon our reservation, so we got tofu, rice and vegetables, sandwiches and a fruit salad. Really good and tasty. =P~
There was apparently a mix up when the stewardesses were handing out lunch: I got a sandwich with turkey meat... Didn't care that much since I wasn't hungry , but the friendly Flemish stewardess (the only Dutch speaking person on the airplane) went "backstage" and brought me a huge plate filled with different kinds of cheese and bread.
It took only 45 minutes after lunch before we landed in Washington. The first thing we noticed when got of the plane, was the heat! That was a promise for Florida!
Our next flight with TED was scheduled for 17.15 pm local time. The Airbus was a lot smaller, no screens in the seats in front of us, but there were a lot less passengers, so the stewardesses took some more time to hand out the free drinks.
The captain pointed us out that we could listen to the radio communications between the surrounding airplanes and the control tower, which was really funny. :lol: You could actually listen to arguments between those two who was going to leave first! He also told us that we would fly by Rita but we didn't see her though.
We also met Jonas (who used to be a member on this board and is moderator on the Disneysites boards).
Before we knew it, we were already flying over Orlando ground and would land a few minutes early, around 19.20 pm.
In the airport, we had to take a monorail-like vehicle to the main building were a Disney representative was supposed to meet us. We couldn't find anyone, but Jonas told us what direction we had to go to. In the end, we got lost and ended up at luggage pickup. That's were we finally saw a person wearing a Magical Express nametag. He pointed us the direction which we followed. We found another guy (the Disney Representative) wearing Mickey gloves telling us another way how to get to the DME desk, which we finally found after 20 minutes of looking. (Maybe a few signs would have been easier). We had to go to the desk were they looked up our reservation and send us to another cast-member who brought us to the right coach.
The buses were all brand new with comfortable plush seats, dimmed light and flat screens every few chairs. They showed us a WDW movie featuring a bunch of characters with voice-overs. The other video was a featurette from Narnia.
We arrived at Pop Century after half an hour or so. We got our room keys from quite a weird guy at the reception, we could hardly understand what he was saying, so I kept on saying yes without knowing the question...
The room we got was very nice and clean and was located in the building with the bicycle (the 70's block), across the building with the Mickey Phone. :mickey2:
After a quick shower, we got a visit by our friends Francisco and Keith who were going to be our personal guide during our stay!
We went to bed around 11pm after a very long flight and we were looking forward to our visit to the Magic Kingdom, the next morning...
Quotewe could hardly understand what he was saying, so I kept on saying yes without knowing the question...
LOL! You do that too, huh? :P
Hmm, sounds like you had a tiring day! Can't wait to hear what Magic Kingdom was like :)
Well he had some kind of speaking disorder, and I had already said 3 times excuse me? :wink:
September 14, 2005
The alarm went off at 7.45 am... well that's what raptor thought. He told Flor to get up, but then realized it was just 2.15! Raptor forgot to change the hour on the cell phone, so it went off 6 hours too early... We went back to sleep and get up at 7.45 am, as like we were supposed too...
Flor bought a refillable cup at the resort's restaurant: $12.72 which could be refilled during our whole stay!!
At 8.30 am were we standing in front of the Main Street station, waiting to get in. Music started and a few "citizens" of Main Street showed up telling everyone welcome. Several Disney characters, including Mickey and Minnie arrived by train for the grand opening of the Magic Kingdom. After a countdown and a blast of serpentines, we were allowed in the park!
The first thing we noticed was that the Main Street Station was wrapped up in scaffolding... :-( and refurbishment walls around town square... Quite a disappointment, but then we saw a bunch of characters coming out, including Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Max!!!
We met Francisco and Keith in front of City Hall who guided it through Main Street USA. The buildings here appear to be more simplified, but still quite nice. Although I couldn't get used by the fact that they didn't have any arcades.
The castle looked magnificent in its 50th overhaul. The characters and golden ribbons colored the grayish castle. We weren't convinced by the giant mirror which showed the Disney Castles around the world, it destroyed the forced perspective, which made it look a lot smaller. Flor and I agreed that "our" chateau is still the most beautiful and magical of 'm all. ;-)
After taking lots of pictures, we headed over to Frontierland for our very first ride: Splash Mountain! We got on our log without queuing: no one around! Wow, this ride is really awesome: lots of animatronics, great soundtrack and a big splash!
Our next ride was Splash Mountain's neighbor: Big Thunder Mountain. This one is compared to its brother in Paris a huge letdown. Its lots shorter, less fast and quite a weird ending, although the theming was somewhat similar to the one in Paris.
Next stop was on Liberty Square: the Haunted Mansion. The building looked very nice and creepy and the fresh rose on Master Gracey's grave was a nice touch! I was less happy when I noticed that the "show building" was in clear side in the queuing area. I made that comment out loud to our company, which apparently helped, since everything got shielded off after a few days ;-) .
The ride itself clearly has had its better days. There was no pre-show in the lobby, everyone had to get in the elevator while we were coming inside the building. The spiel in the elevator was the same as in Paris, but in English ofcourse. When the lights went out, a few lights started to flicker above our head and we could hear something that sounded like a thunderstorm in mono-sound: raptor wasn't impressed at all. Then we had to get in our doombuggies in which the "Ghost Host" would accompany us. The onboard sound system was so aged that it was hurting our ears and there was a lot of static noise when our host wasn't speaking. The air compressors made a lot of noise which was quite a shame.
This ride has a lot of potential if it would get a decent refurb and state of the art effects.
We left Liberty Square and headed over to Tomorrowland were we hopped on a rocket in Space Mountain. SM in Florida is, well, weird. The queuing and exit line is very dated and so are the on ride effects. There was no music on board, the only thing we could heard was the our vehicle on the track. The track was clearly visible because of the huge amount of projected stars. A huge earth was projected on the ceiling. The ride is more comparable to Big Thunder Mountain: lots of drops and sharp turns.
Next rides would be Stitch's Great Escape and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, both very cool! Stitch was very funny and the animatronic looked awesome. Buzz Lightyear is a lot of fun, we're both looking forward to see this coming to Paris now!
After our intergalactic adventures we directed ourselves to Fantasyland. We had and heard a lot of bad stuff about this part of the Magic Kingdom, because it supposedly looks dated. Well to be honest, it looked quite ok! It was no Fantasyland in DLRP, but it wasn't THAT bad. Our stop here was Philharmagic! The first thing we noticed while we were waiting was that they're using the music loop from Animation Courtyard at the Walt Disney Studios park! We were overwhelmed by this attraction, it's the best 3D-movie I've ever seen. There's lots of beautiful Disney music, the 3D-animation looks very nice and the in-theater effects are awesome. Please, bring this to Paris!!!!!!
Other stops before lunch were: Pirates of the Caribbean, The Enchanted Tiki-Room under new management, the Jungle Cruise and Peter Pan's Flight.
POTC was a big let down: too dark, too old and too short. :pirate:
The Tiki-Room was funny.
The guide on the Jungle Cruise was very annoying with lots of bad jokes and overacting.
Peter Pan's Flight was different then the Paris version, but not better or worse.
We had done all this before 2pm! There was hardly anyone in the park, so we could do lots of rides before lunch at Cosmic Ray's. Flor and I got us each a vegetarian burger. We could choose with fries or ... carrots ... The food in WDW is great: you get a lot for less money. Our vegetarian burger was just the burger in the sandwich. There was a huge "toppingsbar" in the restaurant were you could fill up your burger with anything of your choice! Raptor was pleased when he saw the bowl of mushrooms (something that most vegetarians adore ;-) )
In the afternoon we decided to head over to the Disney-MGM Studios! (Flor couldn't wait to do Tower of Terror).
We hopped on the ferry to the Tickets & Transportation Center were we took the bus to the Studios park. We stepped through the gates to discover a miniature Hollywood, we could even recognize facades which were also used in "our" Studio 1!
First stop here was of course: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror! Wow what a ride, what an experience! From walking to Sunset Boulevard and seeing the Hollywood Tower Hotel coming nearer, then the misty queuing line outside and the eerie lobby. Even all the cast members were in their roles to welcome the "guests". One of the bell hoppers apologized for the use of the service elevator, because the management had misplaced the guest elevator... This ride, even slightly different, will be an excellent addition for the Walt Disney Studios park.
Next stop was the ToT's neighbor: the Rock 'n Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith. This one was a bit of a disappointment. The queuing line inside was very dark and the introduction movie with Aerosmith was very aged, showing a lot of wear and flickering. The boarding station was nicely themed as an underground garage where you stepped in your limousine for a ride through Hollywood... Well, ... the Wood part was the only true thing about this. It was very, very dark in this ride (De la terre a la lune-dark), with just a few signs being lit-up while you pass them. By the way, the ride is as rough as our Space Mountain. Please, never bring this version to the WDS park! =D>
We moved on to Voyage of the Little Mermaid, on Animation Courtyard. The theater was a lot smaller then Animagique, but the walls around the stage were themed like coral, the rock work was similar to what was used for Legend of the Lion King.
Ariel remains almost during the whole show on her coral, with on the right of her a big screen which shows parts of the movie. The whole thing is build up quite weird: (spoilers)
The show started with a laser (similar to Wishes) projection the logo on the screen.
Under the Sea comes first (identical to the scene in Animagique, with the same puppets), then Ariel comes on stage and sings (playbacks) Part of your World, then an Ursulla puppet comes and takes Ariel's voice, then they show some footage of the movie what happens next and then Prince Eric is lying for death next to Ariel, Triton brakes the spell and Ariel can walk and everyone's happy. ;-)
We now headed over to the Great Movie Ride! The Chinese Theater, were this ride is located in, is hidden by the Sorcerer's Hat, too bad, because this building is a beautiful piece of Imagineering!
The ride is stuffed with Animatronics of famous actors and movie scenes. I won't spoil too much, but the interaction by the "CM host" and the scenes is cleverly done.
This ride is hated by many, but loved by the both of us!!
The most magical moment of the day was meeting Sorcer Mickey in his Soundstage! His outfit looks magnificent! Too bad we don't have him in Paris. :sorcerer:
We had a quick stop at One man's dream: an exhibition showing Walt's and the Disney corporation's accomplishments. Lots of scale models were up for view: Spaceship Earth, California Adventure, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty Castle and the best one (for us): Le Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant! There was also some old Eurodisney merchandise on display. We skipped the movie to watch the parade, which was about to start.
Chicken Little opened the Stars and Motors Parade, followed by his other Disney Friends, including Playhouse Disney characters and the Power Rangers.
The soundtrack is fun (DLRP uses it for the Goodmorning WDS parade), but the parade is just some vehicles passing by. No effects, no real guest interaction and no dancers (except for Chicken Little and Aladdin). We prefer our modest Cinema Parade... ;-)
After the parade we decided to go and see the Indiana Jones Stuntshow Spectacle. The show is quite well done with a lot of gags and a few spectacular stunts. The show is not bad at all and it's definitely much better then the Motors...Action a few blocks away (more about that later).
After riding ToT again, we decided to hop back to the Magic Kingdom for the nighttime spectacles: Spectromagic and Wishes!
Spectromagic has a catchy soundtrack with lots of colorful floats and lots of characters. The only downer is that there are no stops, huge empty space between different "sets" and the aging of the whole thing.
Wishes was a HUGE fireworks, with lots of noisy fireworks. The fireworks were very impressive, but we missed the show-element (like the projections our Wishes had).
We went to our room for a good night sleep after this spectacular ending of the day.
Animal Kingdom was planned for the day after...
Thanks for the excellent reports so far. :D
I like how you relate a lot of it to DLRP too, since it helps us (well, me) to get a better idea of what WDW is *really* like. You did a lot just in those two days in the parks, and I'm glad you like ToT and Buzz. :D
How would you say the parks compare to the Paris ones in terms of being "Disney parks"? The atmosphere, the CMs, the "magic", etc.? You always hear people saying the atmosphere and CMs in the US are much better than Paris... :?
Baloo, I intented to make the ballance at the end of the trip report, but I'll do it right now for you.
The WDW parks are NOT better or WORSE (like some DLRP fans claim) compared to the parks in Paris. The Disney-MGM Studios is cleary much bigger compared to WDS, but it's very complicated to find you way there and there's not THAT much to offer. Lots of show which you do once, and only ToT and RNRC are rides you can do all over again. (Where have we heard this before???)
The Magic Kingdom is a lot older and less structurised compared to our DLP. The elder rides are mostly, well, old, but the new ones (Stitch, Buzz, Philharmagic) are fantastic! This park really needs a refurb and lots of rides have to be modernised.
Thanks for your opinion! I'll leave you to judge the rest of the parks at the end of the report. :wink:
September 15, 2005
Got up quite early today, 8.45am. Refilled the cup with coffee and had a Red Bull and apple we purchased at Walmart, the night before.
Animal Kingdom was programmed today, so that's were we went to.
When we passed the turnstiles, the huge Tree of Life rose in the distance. It's a beautiful centerpiece, much more impressive then the Sorcerer's Hat Icon at Disney-MGM Studios.
Keith directed is to Africa for the Kilimanjaro Safari, because it wasn't too hot that morning. The warmer it gets, the less animals you'll see in that ride, according to him.
When we arrived at the loading station, we noticed a long queue, and as in most of the parks, no Fast Pass available today. We passed one of the Cast Members, who called us back and asked if Flor wanted to trade a pin. He got a "It's tough to be a bug"-pin (we only trade for attraction pins) which looked great. He also asked us if we wanted to have Fastpass tickets for the attraction, so we didn't have to queue! Great idea! We passed the whole line and got on one of the safari buses after a few minutes. The benches looked like the ones on the Studio Trams. The whole ride was very rough but we got to see a lot of beautiful animals. Okapi's, crocodiles, hippo's, elephants, lions, zebra's, ... The surroundings were the animals lived looked very realistic, and we even got proof that the animals were living creatures and no animatronics ;-) One of the giraffes thought that the branch hanging over the road was a lot tastier than the others, so he decided to block to the road for over 15 minutes! We had to wait until the animal moved by itself, the Cast Members were not allowed to interfere! There was a pile up of other buses behind us, they all had to wait until the giraffe moved along... Everyone cheered when he did!
The Pangani Forest Trail was next. This was basically a path through some beautiful settings, with several stops on the way. One of the stops was a "research facility" where smaller animals could be observed.
The highlight of the tour was the Gorilla habitat were these animals were up for view behind a glass wall. A Cast Member was on location to explain more about these creatures.
Be sure to check out the pictures for the "real" Timon...
We headed over Rafiki's Planet Watch, only accessible by an old steam train. We got a tour backstage, showing several habitats of the animals.
When we got nearer to the main building, we noticed Pocahontas, chatting with the ice-cream vender! We got an autograph and picture, but she clearly didn't care for us and the other guests, so she turned around after our meeting and started chatting again. Never seen this in Paris to be honest!
We got inside the main building were there was an exhibition about the rain forest. Several rooms, behind windows of course, showed an operating room were a team of vets were operation a white rat... There was no where any blood and I wondered why they would operate an animal that gets fed to the reptiles a few miles away... :-s The other room was filled with plants and real life butterflies.
Outside of the building was a petting zoo. Guests could pet several tame animals like donkey's, a lama and goats.
Next destination was Dinoland USA! We arrived at Chester and Hester's Dino-Rama. Everything was setup as a huge traveling fair. The Wild Mouse ride, Primeval Whirl was very violent and rough. We decided to leave this place as soon as possible and headed over to one of the best rides in the Animal Kingdom: DINOSAUR! The queuing line was setup as a tour in a museum with several dinosaur skeletons and a short lesson in dinosaur history. Then we were directed to the basement of the building were the Timerovers were waiting for us. Our task was to go back in time and bring back Aladar, the Iguanodon from the Dinosaur movie. The ride was filled with pefect animatronics of dinosaurs.
This one is one of the best attractions of all the parks, especially for Raptor.
We went to Pizzasafari for lunch after this. The pizza's were quite smaller then at Bella Note's in Paris, but of a much better quality. An elder woman from the cleaning crew came to Flor and asked if he wanted to trade pins (yes that happened quite a lot in WDW). He got a very cool Illuminations pin, from which the lady said he had to keep that one, because it was a Cast Lanyard Exclusive.
After lunch we directed ourselves to the Kali River Rapids. According to the WDW planning dvd, we would get SOAKED. Well... we didn't! The ride was quite short, but very well themed. There was a huge burning plain with real fire, smoke and burned sent. We came out rather dry and a bit disappointed about the length of it.
It became time now for Mickey's Jungle Jammin' Parade, so we found ourselves a nice spot to watch it. The family in front of us had 3 strollers, filled with annoying and noisy children. They pushed over their cup filled with coke 2 times, nearly hitting us... Anyway, the parade was very creative and full of colors and rhythm. Very nice, especially compared to the Stars & Motors Parade.
Next stop was Camp Minnie & Mickey for a meet 'n greet with the same named characters. We posed for a picture, after which Minnie pushed away Mickey to get a picture with the both of us. We even had to give her a kiss... ;-)
We went to one of the boutiques to find some CM's with a lanyard, we didn't want to come home with just a few WDW pins. Flor found a castmember with a cool which he traded. He told the lady that the pin he was trading for was from Paris, which caught her attention. In the end were there 4 other CM's standing round him to look at his pins and ask questions about DLRP!
The last attraction here was It's tough to be a bug, located underneath the Tree of Life. The movie was really funny with some nice in-theater effects, like sent and Animatronics!
It's tough to be a bug concluded our visit to the Animal Kingdom. We hopped to Disney-MGM Studios to meet up with Francisco who's workday ended.
We did the Sounds Dangerous movie which was really boring! After another drop in Tower of Terror, did we do the Beauty and the Beast show. It was a very simple show, with no special effects or impressive decors. Mostly simple painted backdrops of the castle and the village. Only the ballroom inside the castle was "real". The scene in the village is exactly the same as the one in Belle's Christmas Village at DLRP. The whole show was in this style with dancers. We both loved this show, because of it's simplicity.
We left to the room a bit early to get ready for a night of fun at Please Island! We arrived there with Keith and Francisco around 11pm and got our wristband which allowed us access to all the clubs. First stop was at the Adventurers Club, themed like Colonel Hathi's at DLRP with several rooms with live animation.
It was almost 12pm, so we went to the main stage were there they celebrated New Year everyday! There was a countdown and even fireworks (which looked very similar to Wishes in Paris according to Raptor). Next club was Motion with more pop music. Not quite Raptor's taste, so we hopped for some Techno-music to Mannequins, where we stayed for the rest of the night. Some guy (his name was Spencer) kept on flirting with Flor by pointing out how nice his DLRP shirt was. All lights went on a 2am, which meant... time to go to bed!
Quote from: "raptor1982"we noticed Pocahontas, chatting with the ice-cream vender! We got an autograph and picture, but she clearly didn't care for us and the other guests, so she turned around after our meeting and started chatting again. Never seen this in Paris to be honest!
/
No , in Paris they dont stop to do Autographs and pictures they run from the guest !
QuoteNo , in Paris they dont stop to do Autographs and pictures they run from the guest !
lol yes, the Lilo story... :lol:
Oh yeah that one stupid character :lol: , still I have to say wow WDW has a lot of characters that Paris never has, also fantastic report of course apart from earlier before you changed it when you were self obsessing about your looks instead of Fantasyland :wink: .
It looks like you guys had a wonderfull time
QuoteWe had done all this before 2pm! There was hardly anyone in the park, so we could do lots of rides before lunch at Cosmic Ray's
It must be great to do so much in so little time :lol: gives you a chance to do things a second time and enjoy the sphere a bit more...
About the haunted mansion.. you guys are one of the many people I hear complaining about the soundeffect in the doombuggie (ghost host) and that the mansion is old... It's a shame because this is a famous ride.. why don't they put the thing in rehab for a few weeks.. :roll:
thanks for the report already :D
Well, it doesn't really need a rehab, it needs more of a make-over, more state of the art effects.
September 16, 2005
We arrived at Epcot around 10.30 am and first thing we saw was the HUGE Spaceship Earth. Behind it was a huge fountain which performed a "show" every hour or so. The water went really high on the tones of The Rocketeer.
When Keith and Francisco arrived, we went to the first attraction here: Ellen's Energy Adventure. We had to get into some kind of trams, similar to the ones of the Great Movie Ride. When everyone was seated, a movie started starring Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Nye (the Science Guy) and Alex Trebek. Ellen dreamed she was in Jeopardy and took up against Albert Einstein and Dr. Judy Peterson (Jamie Lee Curtis), who got all the right answers. Bill takes her on an adventure through time to learn her and us about energy. This attraction uses both Animatronics and huge screens. Very, very funny, but a bit dated (her cell phone has the size of a book ;-) )
When then boarded our Crash Test vehicles for a ride on Test Track. Each vehicle has onboard screens and regular safety belts. Your vehicle gets through several tests, like real vehicles do. Driving up a hill, Belgian & German blocks, brake tests with and without ABS, curves, cold & heat, ... The finally is a high speed ride on the track outside. The exit of the ride is a car factory and then you end up in a showroom for GM-vehicles. Test Track is really unique and very cool!
Next was Soarin'! This ride was cleverly done with some nice smell effects and nice scenes (flying over Disneyland California dressed in Chrismas decorations) but we felt that this ride was a bit overrated. Fun and nice, but not the best at the Resort.
Living with the land was located in the same building and was basically a boat ride through the different ways of harvest. It concluded with a ride through several glasshouses were real plants were grown (Mickey shaped tomatoes and pumpkins). It was a very boring ride, mostly because of the voice of our tour guide, who clearly didn't care about everything what was happening.
We walked through Innoventions were a lot of computers and stuff were showing how devices and stuff work. Educating for kids, but not much to do for grown ups.
We decided to leave Future World (Discovery World would be more appropriate actually) and head over to World Showcase.
First country we visited was Canada. A Circle Vision movie (yes Paddy, they still have those here) showed some the beautiful places of this country. It was accompanied by a beautiful song (well at least according to Keith). Like most of the movies at Epcot, it was very dated.
Next country was Great Britain. The buildings looked very nice and realistic. There was even a meet 'n greet location which looked like Mary Poppins room, with her bag and lamp included! Behind all the buildings was a small pavilion were a band performed hits from The Beatles.
Next stop was France! We were welcomed by a Disneyland Paris sign (yes, the old logo) which is Part of the Happiest Celebration on Earth. It looked all quite realistic, but smaller of course ;-). We discovered a small bistro which served a cheese dish! Great, and apparently, all the CM's in the pavilion were actually from the country itself, so we could speak some French again!
We spotted Belle in the area, so we got some pictures with her! This is a great idea at Epcot: meeting the characters at their country of origin!
We decided to watch the Impressions de France movie later that day.
Morocco was beautiful designed! The interior looked very similar to the Adventureland Bazar at DLRP. Aladdin and Jasmine were greeting guests outside. Aladdin did a great job as a face character! He was very interactive with the guests, especially children. He was actually the best Aladdin we'd ever seen, he even tried to speak a few words of French.
We hopped to Japan after lunch, Tokyo Disneyland was advertised here too. A huge exhibition of Japanese toys was the major attraction here, but we skipped it. Instead we visited the huge store, selling all kinds of Japanese stuff: Pokémon, Godzilla, Power Rangers, Japanese food, ... They even sold small crabs like they were chips :-& .
We walked by the American pavilion, but skipped this one for another day.
Italy had no major attractions either, just a relaxing area and a store with beautiful masks from Venice.
Germany had a dinner show, which we didn't see. The facades looked a lot like our Fantasyland buildings! Really neat to see.
The African section was very minimal: a Coolpost and a few huts housing a store.
Next was China where a Circle Vision movie was located, but which we skipped too. We visited the Hong Kong Disneyland preview center instead. Wow, that's a Small Park after all. There wasn't that much too see, most concept art was online before on their website.
After the Kingdom of Dreams exhibition (yes that's how they call HKDL), we met Mulan and Mushu! She was one of the weirdest face characters I've ever seen. She spoke with the same voice as The Nanny... (Keith and Francisco did a great impression).
Norway was the next stop. Maelstrom was a very confusing ride. It showed a bunch of Viking animatronics and next we were sailing between oilrigs. The fiberglass pixie dust was nicely done!
Mexico had the Rio del Tiempo. A very aged version of It's a Small World with Mexican puppets, video and film screens and life size animatronics. Again, as the rest of the rides in World Pavilion: old!
We decided to go back to the Impressions de France movie. It had a nice soundtrack by French composers and featured some nice shots from all over the country. This was one of the better movies in the World Pavilion, because it was a bit more timeless, due to the classical score.
After France, we went back to Future World for Mission: Space! We'd heard a lot of terrible stories about this attraction, which made us rather curious then scared. The outside of the building looks really stunning: the use of the colors and shapes is perfect!
The ride itself is very intense, we got pushed in our chairs and it caused it bit of a noxious feeling. It looked all very cool, but we wondered how long it would take before this ride was dated.
It was almost dark now, so we looked for a place to see Illuminations. A perfect spot was in front of Italy, according to our American friends, so that's were we watched it.
This fireworks show is really stunning! The music and the effects were beautiful. It was a bit weird to see fireworks explode that "close in your face".
We went to Downtown Disney later that night for some shopping at Virgin and the World of Disney. We got our postcards to send home and went to sleep after a long trip around the world... sort of...
September 17, 2005
We slept in today! Got up around 11 am and started writing our postcards.
We decided to go back to the Magic Kingdom and re-ride our favourite rides overthere.
But first we went to the Noodle Station for lunch. We got quite a lot for less money, as usual here.
Buzz Lightyear, Space Mountain and Splash Mountain were the first rides we did.
After meeting up with Francisco and Keith, we went for some more rides at Tomorrowland.
We then went looking for a spot to watch the parade at "Frontierland"! Finally!!! We heard a lot of bad things about the parade, especially DLRP fans don't like the rumours that this parade is coming to Paris someday. Well, maybe they're wrong...
The parade announcement was by Julie Andrews. Then after a few minutes Peter Pan's and Tinkerbell's voice introduced the Share a Dream Come Through parade. The orchestral theme started to roll and the first vehicle came insight. An animator, who looked like Walt, draws Mickey on the opening title vehicle. Several other animators on foot and on bike joined him and the other floats.
The first float was Mickey's snowglobe, dubbed "It was all started by a mouse". It showed several Mickey statues in his previous forms: Steamboat Willie, Sorcerer Apprentice, the Brave Little Tailor, .... Unlike our WWDP, all characters had their voice here! The Fantasia brooms followed Mickey's float, which were really awesome!!!
Next float "Wish upon a star", starring Pinocchio inside the bubble. Snowwhite and her 7 friends were standing on the back of the float. It was really nice to see the Blue Fairy!
"A hunderd-thousand dreams to see" with Aladdin, Winnie the Pooh and friends and Mary Poppins.
Face the darkest fears had all our favorite villains: Cruella, Maleficent (they use the fake chin at WDW, looks more comical then scary), the Evil Queen and Captain Hook!
Next was the float featuring Peter Pan and Wendy. Followed by "A dream is a wish your heart makes" with Cinderella, Prince Charming and the Fairy Godmother.
The finale float featured the castle with the rest of the Disney princesses and their princes: Aurora and Phillippe, Ariel and Eric, Belle and the Beast. This float and the Cinderella one were the only that had parade dancers.
This parade could actually work in Paris!!! The floats are really nicely themed. A different, more upbeat soundtrack and parade dancers can make this a sparkling addition to DLRP!!!
We returned to the Haunted Mansion after the parade and then headed over to Tomorrowland.
Carrousel of Progress was a lot of fun! It's not a thrill ride, it's not really a show, it's... something Disney! The Audio-Animatronic people tell their story, each in their own time: 1900's, 40's, 60's, 90's. Each scene ends with the catchy song: There's a great big beautiful tomorrow!
The People Mover showed us around Tomorrowland. Very relaxing!
After another spin on Buzz Lightyear, we tried the Indy Speedway. It is boring, compared to our Autopia. It looks like... well a speedway! Autopia has a lot more stuff to see under way with low hanging trees and bushes, while at the IS, it's all open road. (But it's still a lot of fun to drive your own car ;-) ) But a possitive note: the loading and unloading goes a lot faster then at Autopia!
Toon Town was next! We made a quick visit at Minnie's house but skipped the rest of another day because Cinderellabration was about to start! :cinderella:
We found a spot in front of the castle, on the ground, no benches here! The show was kind of weird. Francisco, who had seen the original one in Tokyo 2 months before, said the Florida version was watered down. The show begins with the Fairy Godmother and the Grand Duke announcing the coronation of Cinderella. Dancers come on stage followed by the king. Cinderella and Prince Charming make their grand entry through the gates of her castle. Next the princes and princesses of four other kingdoms are announced: Snow White and the Prince, Aurora and Phillippe, Aladdin and Jasmine and finally Belle and the Beast (no sign of Ariel). Before we realised what happenend was Cinderella being crowned. Fireworks was shot from the castle and everyone left the stage with a final goodbye wave from Cinderella. Wow, that went fast. :-s
Still not sure what to think of this show, headed we over to Fantasyland for the Winnie the Pooh ride. The ride is cute, if you like Pooh! It was great that we found the picture of Mr. Toad in the ride!
We crossed the road to Pooh's Playful Spot to find the hidden submarine (we read that somewhere on the internet). Couldn't find it anywhere...
Next was a visit to Ariel in her Grotto. The queuing was nicely themed and the character did a great job! We got a souvenire picture with her. :ariel
We walked around Fantasyland for some night pictures and ended up near Snow White's Scary Adventures. Since Raptor LOVES this ride at DLRP, he had to do this one...
Wow what a ride! =D> This version is much better then the one at DLRP. Twice as long, keeping the right order of the story and a lot more characters inside the ride. Too bad they didn't build this one at DLRP!
We went back to Tomorrowland for some more night pictures and a wild ride on Space Mountain. A few more pictures over at Frontierland and Liberty Square before we left back to the resort for a Scene It Disney game with Francisco and Keith on our room. :D/
Thanks for the reports, keep em coming! :wink:
You're making me really want to visit WDW now. Recently I've been attracted by it less and less, but finally reading a trip report from there makes it sound pretty good. I really want to go and ride all those old and dated attractions and Epcot and also things like Carousel of Progress at MK that are Disney classics. Obviously there's also the added incentive of Expedition Everest next year... WDW doesn't seem too bad afterall! :)
Baloo, I was scared that WDW was going to be much better compared to DLRP. But it's not! They're both as much as fun!
September 18, 2005
We slept in late, again. Got up around noon and went to Disney-MGM Studios for a ride on Tower of Terror and the Rock 'n Roller Coaster.
Who wants to be a Millionaire was one of the few rides we hadn't done yet.
The soundstage looked similar to the one used on television. The host did a great job talking the show together. To find a candidate, everyone in the audience had to answer a question. The person who was the quickest, got to take the seat and could win a trip on the Disney Cruise. The candidate got 3 lifelines, like in the real show, but instead of calling a friend, they could call a complete stranger! A red phone was installed in one of the stores of the Disney-MGM Studios and when the candidate would use this lifeline, the phone would rang and hopefully someone would answer it. :-)
We hopped next to the Backlot Tour (Studio Tram Tour at WDS in Paris). The queuing was a lot better themed, several props of The Rock and Pirates of the Caribbean were on display. Our first stop was the set of "Harbor Attack". Four guests had to take place on a marine ship and play like they were under attack. Everything got filmed and after the display, the movie got shown on television screens. But something went wrong, so we haven't seen a thing...
Next was the queuing area through the props warehouse and then we could board the trams. They're somewhat similar to the ones used in Paris. The tram was full, so we had to take place together with the host. Here at Disney-MGM, they don't use television screens with famous actors, instead a host talks everything together through a microphone. For the first time, we could finally see the Earful Tower. :earfultower: We drove by the only surviving airplane from the Pearl Harbor movie (according to our guide, we know better ;-) )
Catastrophe Canyon was the next stop, similar to Paris, less sound effects (light, camera, action, ...)
After exiting the canyon we drove through the Props Boneyard. Our host explained what the purpose is of this (something we didn't know before). A studio dumps props at the boneyard which they could re-use in a future production. There were a lot less props present here, compared to our Tour.
We also got to see Walt Disney's personal airplane and the New York skyline in the distance (which was in rehab). And guess what... That was it!!
To exit, we had to go through an exhibition about Villains with some costumes of famous villains.
Light, Motors, Action: Extreme Stuntshow was our next stop. This was truly the biggest disappointment of our whole trip. :x All sequences were out of order compared to the show in Paris. All guest interaction got skipped, except for the remote control car sequence. The cars made so much noise which echoed through the whole stage, so you couldn't hear any music. When Herbie came on stage, the only host here asked Herbie how it was working with Lindsay Logan...
And then there was this annoying truck with cameramen on which kept on "following" the action by driving forward and backwards.
The ending was a disappointment too: they showed the complete movie as in Paris, but instead of the red car coming directly out of the building, it first pursued a Villains car, drove behind the building and then came down some kind of slide.
Guests were hardly impressed, there was no cheering as in Paris.
Indiana Jones a few rides away was much more entertaining!!!
We did Voyage of the Little Mermaid again :ariel and then went for some shopping and we got our nametags! When Flor went to buy some Cherry Coke at the Villains & Vogue shop, he got questioned by the 2 CM's at the shop were he was from. They had a short conversation and then one of them asked if we had seen Fantasmic already. :sorcerer: We said we were going to see it that night, on which the cast member replied: the Magic Hours for WDW resort guests are here at the Studios tonight. Theres an extra Fantasmic show at 11pm. That was great news for us, so we could go back to our resort for dinner at the resort restaurant and return afterwards to the Studios.
When we did, we couldn't find any information about that extra Fantasmic showing. Tired looking we asked a CM in the Art of Disney Animation. She said she didn't know a thing about an extra showing and went to get her manager. He asked where we got that information and then apologized because there was no extra show.
We left Disney-MGM Studios disappointed, after a ride on Tower of Terror ofcourse... ;-)
September 19, 2005
Today was THE day for Raptor! We were going to Islands of Adventure!
Keith drove us to the Universal Studios area, about 30 minutes from our resort.
We had planned to buy our ticket for IOA online, but we would save only $5 by purchasing online. So we decided to wait until we got there, which turned out to be a good idea! There was no option to buy a 1 day hopper pass for both IOA and Universal Studios, but at the gates it was possible for only $10 more (we got a one day hopper pass for about $65 each).
We went through the gates and stood in a Mediterranean harbor. It had the feeling of a set of the movie Waterworld. Everything was nicely detailed. The harbor ended at the huge lake in the middle of the park. On the opposite site of it laid the Jurassic Park complex. Wonderfully themed, an exact copy of the movie version. This got Raptor really excited. :trex:
We decided to walk through The Lost Continent area, in the direction of Jurassic Park. Poseidon's Fury was closed for rehab, so we hopped to Dueling Dragons. The queuing area was very long, empty (no guests) but very well themed. The story goes about two dueling dragons: Fire and Ice. So there were several skeletons in the queue which were frozen or black scorched. But then came the disappointment. The boarding station was hardly themed, with a "cast member" (don't know how they call 'm at Universal) begging us to stay with her because she was lonely ;-) . We did Fire first and could ride Ice, without doing the whole queue again. The ride is a nice coaster, but unfortunately the track goes over Universal's container park, filled with trash.
And then it was finally time to arrive at Jurassic Park. The JP soundtrack (Journey to the Island for the JP insiders) filled the whole atmosphere while the enormous gate came closer and closer. After a few pictures we entered the JP domain. The theming here was the best of the whole park. A lush jungle themed with electrical fences, similar to the ones in the movie. We visited the main building first, to find out... that it was completely in rehab. What a BIG disappointment :cry: (but a good excuse to go back soon ;-) ) Only the souvenir store was open, so that was our only stop here.
We headed over to the Jurassic Park River Adventure. A ride similar to Disney's Splash Mountain, but shorter and more intense drop. We got into our boats and started to sail the river on Isla Nublar (yes, the Jurassic Park island). A narrator welcomed us in a Richard Attenborough movie-style while the enormous gates opened. We got in the Ultrasaurus lagoon, a long-necked dinosaur. Psittacosaurus and a baby Stegosaurus welcomed us, unfortunately was the adult Stegosaurus in rehab. A Parasaurolophus popped out of the water, knocking our boat out of course. We're now heading to forbidden area... in the direction of the Velociraptors! We passed the destroyed Raptor Pit, an exact copy of the movie version. 2 Baby raptors were fighting for ripped shirt. A raptor cage nearly fell on our heads while we were going inside the power plant. The boat is now floating inside the building. Several televisions show a security agent telling us to get out (Jurassic Park fans will recognize the paleontologist Jack Horner who's the dinosaur advisor for all 3 JP movies). Raptors make shrieking sounds and Dilophosaurus' spit their poison at the ride guests. The ride reaches its climax when a huge Tyrannosaurus Rex towers above us while we're sliding down to safety and end up with a huge splash outside the power plant!
This is a very fun ride with lots to see. The animatronics are, compared to Disney, a lot more jerky and less convincing, but JP fans don't mind that. ;-)
It was also fun to see that the host of the safety video was called Michael Bowman... (JP fans know what I'm talking about ;-) )
After our splash, we visited the Camp Jurassic area. A large playground for children with Amber Mines and several water games. The Pteranodon Flyers which gives a great view above the Jurassic Park area was forbidden for adults without kids :-( . To conclude our visit at JP, we took some pictures of the prop vehicles, used in the movies.
Toon Lagoon was the next Island we visited. We skipped Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls and insead opped for Popey & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges: a raft ride. The track was almost twice as long as Kali River Rapids with a lot more water splashing. Our clothes were soaked when we got out!
Next was Marvel Superheroe Island. This area was themed like it was a page out of a comic book. We got some pictures with the X-Men and Spider-Man characters and then decided to do the Spider-Man ride. This was quite a special ride!!! Think: HISTA meets Star Tours meets Armageddon!!! You have to board a vehicle which follows a track goes by huge screens with 3D images of Spider-Man and enemies. The vehicle can move in every direction for a more realistic feeling. It took a lot of sharp turns while live effects were going on in the show building, including mist and fire! A great ride which could be a great addition to Disney parks.
The Incredible Hulk Coaster was an intensive rollercoaster. No theming, just a biiiiiig (Martin Short in Cinémagique) green coaster.
We went back to Jurassic Park for another ride on the River Adventure. (Did you know that Universal bought the rights to the JP novel to build the ride at their Hollywood park, but decided to film it first?)
The queuing here was enormous now, with more guests and just a few boats on track. By the way, all the Universal Express machines (Fast Pass) was closed. Only Universal resort guests and people who were willing to pay for an Express pass could use it.
Raptor bought some neat Jurassic Park toys before hopping over to Universal Studios park.
We passed through the huge Universal gates and walked into the NY Street Set, which looks much better than at the Disney-MGM Studios. We discovered the Shrek meet 'n greet location with Fionna, Shrek and Donkey posing of pictures. Donkey was a puppet in its stall with a live voice interacting with the guests.
In the mean time some other face characters arrived: Popey and Olive (at IOA, they're masked characters) Lucy and Ricky and some other. :)
First attraction we were going to do was Twister... Ride it out! The queuing had some props from the movie. We got inside the main building for a short movie about tornadoes by Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. Next was the preshow with a few effects, but when it was over, all the music freezed and the work lights turned on. The ride was down, but we decided to wait until it was fixed. But after 15 minutes, one of the cast members came to tell us that the ride wasn't going to reopen soon, but we just had to say the word "Stormchaser" at the entrance of the ride, so they would let us in without queuing.
We went for a walk through the several streetsets which are all very realistic! We ended up at the Jaws ride, which appeared to be closed too for refurb. It isn't Raptor's best day.
We got a picture with the Space Shuttle (which isn't so biiiiig as it looks like on the pictures ;-) ) and hopped to the Men in Black ride. This was a lasterblast ride with a much longer track compared to Buzz and with lots of Animatronic Aliens. But it was also a very complicated ride, Raptor hardly got any score... And then the vehicles would start to spin really fast, which he didn't like either...
The ET Adventure was next. Before we boared we had to tell our names to the cast member who gaves us a card, which he had to give back when we were boarding our vehicle. It was made of bicycles on which we were cycling through the forest, looking for ET. The first part of the ride was really nicely themed, with a very realistic forest and some pop-up FBI agents and their vehicles. Then ET would use its magic finger (or how do you call that) to make us fly! This part looked like the starscape at Peter Pan's Flight in Paris. We then ended up at ET's planet, which was really weird!!! It looked like an ET version of It's a Small World, instead of puppets, they had little aliens singing an annoying song... We passed a large ET which was mumbling something... The only thing we understood was: DAVY.
We ran into the Madagscar animals (got a picture of them for Paddy) but quickly headed over to the Horror Make-Up show. We were very lucky to see the show at that time, because when they had to use someone from the audience, they picked out an Asian woman (Swee-Mae) who couln't speak a word of English. A lot of gags about that, but in the mean time, a guy with Down's syndrome started to answer the questions which the hosts were asking Swee-Mae. He kept on laughing out loud and giving comments, he clearly had the time of his life!!
We went back to the Revenge of the Mummy ride, which we knew was being praised as excellent. The queuing was themed as the inside of a pyramid with some interactive stuff. We boarded our vehicle and encountered the first mummy. We had read that Universal Creative (their Imagineering department) was very proud on this one, they claimed that it was the most realstic Animatronic ever! Well... no not really!! The Pirates at POTC in Florida look a lot more real in movement, compared to this one! He looked rather funny then scary. And then suddenly a bunch of mummies popped up, no animatronics.
We were kind of launched inside the temple where we had so acceleration and sharp turns. The big finally was a huge fireball and burning ceiling, the only impressive element according to us.
We tried to get in at Twister again, but the ride was permanently closed for that day. :(
Final ride at Universal was Earthquake: the big one. There was a preshow first with guests interacting in some "stunt" sets. Then we boarded a subway train. When we stopped at the next station, the eartquake hit us! There was action everywhere, with lots of sparks, smoke and movement. A gas tube got hit, causing a blaze of fire, but luckely the water system got hit too, so everything was put out by a huge flood of water. Similar to Catastrophe Canyon, but with a lot more to see and a bit more exciting, because you're inside a building.
It was remarkable how much Walt Disney Studios more looked like Universal Studios, rather than Disney-MGM Studios.
We ended our day with a cocktail at the resort pool... ;-)
Questions??? Post 'm here! :D
Sorry for the delay people, but here's the next day of our WDW trip!
September 20, 2005
Since we had done all of the themeparks already, we decided to calm down a bit. We returned to Animal Kingdom today, to do the rides we hadn't done yet.
Festival of the Lion King was first. We entered a big round auditorium without a stage, which got rolled in the beginning of the performance.
Several singers performed songs from the Lion King movies, but unlike our Legend of the Lion King, the actors weren't supposed to look like a character from the movie.
A few of the songs were the same as in LOTLK.
The show was fun, mostly directed to kids, but we preferred the broadway-like LOTLK.
On our way to Dinoland USA, we got struck by a huge rain shower. We got SOAKED!! Everyone was trying to hide, but the sun reappeared after only 10 minutes, so we got to go to Dinosaur after all. We decided to stop first at Restaurantosaurus for lunch. They serve here McDonalds fries, something that's quite common here at WDW. Also, they had the great "toppingsbar" system here too, where you just got your hamburger between the sandwich which could be filled with the toppings of your choice. So we did Dinosaur after our vegeterian burger and got some pictures of the surrounding area, the queuing line and the loading station.
We hopped to Disney-MGM Studios for another ride on Tower of Terror and the Great Movie Ride.
Next we got some pictures at the Streetsets, luckily there were just a few people around. We went for a walk at the Honey I shrunk the Kids movieset, which is pretty cool. Large blades of grass were towering above our heads, together with huge toys. Raptor loved the Supersoaker, his favorite toy during the summer! ;-)
Flik, the static character which used to sand near the Studio Tram Tour at WDS, was still present here at the Backlot Express!
Before we went to see the movie at the One Man's Dream exhibition, we stopped at Sorcerer Mickey again for another picture. (Yes we LOVED him).
Before we went into the movie theater, we had put a DLRP parkmap between the metallic rail and the window of DLRP's castle model... ;-)
The movie was very interesting, but Disney fans can clearly tell that certain parts of Disney's history were left out. Everything was hosted by Michael Eisner. (Will they replace him by Iger soon??)
After Walt's life on the big screen we went to the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater... That got us really excited, because this is were Fantasmic takes place! We got there nearly 2 hours before the show, which was unnecessary, because of the low crowds.
But we got a nice spot right in the middle of the Amphitheater. While waiting they were playing Paddy's favorite Disney music: pop versions of classic Disney Songs (yes, those annoying songs sung by Disney's Circle of Stars or whatever). Very annoying if you have to listen 2 hours to the Disney Macarena and It's a small world by the Ba-Ha Men...
But right after when it got dark, the show started! Luckely, because the wind was very strong and they kept on running a spiel which warned that the show might be cancelled due to the bad weather.
Fantasmic is the BEST Disney Show we've ever seen. It has everything: the music, the effects and the princesses, the villains, lots of characters! Fantasmic builds up to the spectalur ending with Sorcerer Mickey on top of the mountain, directing the fireworks. :sorcerer:
This show has to come to Paris someday!
:arrow: Pictures: http://users.pandora.be/jurassictoys/wdw/20_september (http://users.pandora.be/jurassictoys/wdw/20_september)
PS. There are no Fantasmic pictures yet, but we got plenty of them on our last day. We'll post them then with a description of each scene. 8)
Thanks for the report! It's funny that Fantasmic always has that strong effect on everyone that sees it - everyone just loves it instantly. I take it that it's much better seeing it for real rather than on a video from the web? :D
Love the photos too - I'll have to take a proper look through them all this week whilst I'm off college. :)
Yes Baloo, Fantasmic is an amazing show. It builds up your emotions to the big climax.
September 21, 2005
Blizzard Beach was the first waterpark we were going to do during our stay. The bus dropped us off in front of the gates, were we noticed hardly any crowds, probably because it was a grayish day. We had to rent a locker to put our stuff in: $10, from which we would get $5 back... luckily we brought our towels from the hotel, because those had to be rented too. Everything was nicely themed as a melting ski-resort.
First thing we did here was Cross Country Creek. You get on a big tube which slowly goes around the waterpark. The water was filled with leafs and stuff. On our way we got sprayed on with ice-cold water, melting snow according to the story. They even had CM's with camera's inside the water to get pictures of the people which you could buy afterwards.
Next was the famous Summit Plummit. The climb to the top of the mountain was very high. The stairs were quite slippery because of the fallen leaves, which were everywhere and made the park looking dirty. We got a great view on top of the mountain, we could see even Animal Kingdom and the back of Mount Everest (it's not themed, just a large cement block). The drop down was quite scary and really fast, and like the Resort Channel had promoted this ride, we got our "wedgie" indeed for free. ;-)
In the mean time it started to rain, but we decided to stay, since we were wet anyway. When the sun came through again, Raptor decided to get some sun tanning while Flor did some more waterrides.
We concluded our visit here after just 2 hours and headed over to the Resort to get a shower and to get ready for our visit to Downtown Disney in the afternoon.
Flor went to get some pictures of the Resort. Notice the picture of Pop Century's Phase II (1900's, -10's, -20's, -30's and –40's).
http://users.pandora.be/jurassictoys/wd ... C00879.jpg (http://users.pandora.be/jurassictoys/wdw/21_september/images/DSC00879.jpg)
Planet Hollywood at Downtown Disney looks bigger then the one at Disney Village, but it shared the lack of paint on certain parts of the building. In front of the globe was a small lake located which was very dirty. The Jenny, Forest Gump's boat was located in it. We strolled down the Westside to get some pictures of the stores.
Next was Disney Quest, which was basically a huge arcade with lots of Virtual Reality games.
When we passed the turnstiles, we had to enter an elevator which had some kind of a screen inside featuring a hologram-like Genie explaining Disney Quest. First ride we did was the Virtual Jungle Cruise. We sat on a boat which was located on a big inflatable pillow. We had to paddle with a stick with wheels on which directed us in the game, projected on a big screen in front of us. We didn't get the point of the game that well and got some soar in our arms ;-) .
We walked around a bit and played some arcade games until we stumbled upon the Alien Encounter game. We got onboard with another kid. Raptor had to be the pilot which directed the airship on a distant planet. Our task was to rescue a bunch of astronauts under attack by aliens. The other people inside the spaceship had to fire guns on those aliens.
Next was ride the Comix. We got a virtual reality helmet on and lightsaber-like blade. We were plunged inside the Comix world in which we had to battle the bad guys with our virtual sword. Pretty neat, if you like Star Wars!! ;-)
Aladdin's Magic Carpet was the next game we hopped to. We had to wear a Virtual Reality helmet again, and had to lean forward on something that looked like a motorcycle. We were flying on the magic carpet which we had to steer with the steering wheel of "motorcycle". Flor had a lot of fun on this ride!
Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters was the last attraction we did here. We had to board some kind of bumbercars. Raptor had to drive over big balls while Flor had to load them in a cannon. He then had to shoot on a big star on the other bumpercars to make them spin like crazy. A very cool and funny ride!
We went back to resort and got a visit by Keith and Francisco in the evening who brought us a pizza from the Pizza Hut!!! (Thanks guys!)
We went to bed late and were already dreaming of our next visit to one of the parks.
Great report, sounds great especially Blizzard Beach, shame about the big pile of concrete to be seen, obviously some resorts don't take note of what people can see from the back :lol: . Great to hear fantasmic was also fantastic, seems like everything in WDW is great, although why my name keeps coming up I will never know, ps. I don't like the pop versions of Disney classic music, just a couple :wink: . Although sounds as though macarena and it's a small world now thats bad, I think I would die :lol: .
sounds like a wonderful trip i wish i was there
lol
Next time, you should join us ;)
sounds like a plan
September 22, 2005
We returned to Epcot and did a stroll through Innovations, a ride on Test Track and then headed over to World Showcase where we did the American Adventure.
Lunch again at the French Pavillion: Cheese dish!!!
Magic Kingdom was planned for the afternoon. Stitch, Buzz, Small World, Space Mountain,
Toon Town, Haunted Mansion and Philharmagic could all be done almost without queieing. We watched Share a dream come through parade on Town Square (or what was left of it, due to the refurb on the trainstation).
Although it seemed like a normal, somewhat boring day, a lot of stuff happened!
American Adventure: right before the Animatronic show began, a group of singers entered the lobby of the building and started singing some typical American folklore songs (Yankee Doodle, ...) They concluded their performance with Stars and Stripes. All Americans suddenly stood up, took of their hats and started to sing a long, with their hand on their hart! We remained seated, which gaves us a lot of angry looks by the other tourists ;-)
Nice performance, but a bit too patriotic for us Belgians.
The actual show is performed by Animatronics in front of a huge projection screen, telling the American History.
When we were leaving the French pavilion, a woman with a Spanish accent stopped me and pointed to my t-shirt (with a big Mickey Mouse and in a big font: Disneyland Resort Paris).
She asked me where I'd bought that t-shirt.
I told here In Paris. She was like: yes I know, but in which store, and she pointed behind here, to the French Pavilion. I answered: No, in Disneyland Paris... It took her a few seconds too know what I was talking about, so we both started laughing... :lol:
Stitch: 2 kids (about 11 years old) started freaking out while the people were getting in. They were screaming, crying and kicking to get out. When the CM just pushed the start button to close the doors and lower the harnesses, everyone started to freak out, but the CM didn't even notice a thing ;-) The family left by using the Emergency escape...
Snow White's Scary Adventures is my favourite Magic Kingdom ride! It's far much better then the one in Paris (and according to Francisco, even better then the one in California). I decided to film this ride, as good as I could, but right after the first scene, the ride just stopped and all the lights went on! If I weren't a Disney fan, and was hoping that something like that would happen someday, I would be very disappointed (but I wasnt ;-) )
While we were watching the parade on Town Square (it was raining a little bit), we suddenly noticed that the parade wasn't moving anymore. Suddenly, the gates where the parade was supposed to go in opened and a truck came driving out and went to Mickey's float to pull it forward for a few meters and then left again. The truck drove all the way down Main Street and just parked in front of the crowd...
When the next float came on (Pinocchio's), it stopped too, so the truck had to pull it forward too to make it drive again.
A lot of the characters weren't in the parade (due to the rain) and a few floats were missing (like the final Castle float). And when Cinderella's float came up, you could hardly see her: the globe was completely fogged up...
We concluded our day at Pleasure Island (thursday is CM night). First stop was the Comedy Club, which was really funny. It has 3 standup comedians on the stage who interact with the guest and make fun out of them. :lol: :lol: :lol:
The night ended at 2AM (closure time of PI) at the Mannequin's Dance Club. :mrgreen:
September 23, 2005
No Disney themepark today for us! Keith and Francisco took us to a real American Mall, like they have in the movies. Raptor searched for a KB Toys and found lots and lots of Jurassic Park toys over there for his collection! He purchased for over $60! And we even got a 20% reduction because one of the packages was damaged.
We had dinner at McDonalds, (except for Raptor: nothing vegetarian at the McDonalds in the States) at Downtown Disney.
Shopping in the many stores over there was next and we concluded our day at the hotel room with an expensive bottle of wine, purchased at the Resort boutique.
A whole bunch of photos from the Magic Kingdom (park, parades, Wishes, ...) and the hotel have been added to the gallery!
http://www.photosmagiques.com/gallery/disneyworld (http://www.photosmagiques.com/gallery/disneyworld)
September 24, 2005
Typhoon Lagoon was on our shedule today! The waterpark was nearly deserted when we arrived. There were just a few people present. The grey skies were probably the cause...
The theming looked so much better compared to Blizzard Beach, and so was the overall cleaness. We first headed over to the new Crush 'n Gusher, which opened in 2005. We had a great time in this one! It was like a small rollercoaster, with lots of ups and downs!
Next was the snorkeling in the coral tank. The water was freezing and tasted horrible (salt). But it was a great experience to see the sharks and other fish swim at the bottom of the pool. The CM's here were very rude to the guests. They were shouting and screaming constantly.
We concluded our day here in the main pool which makes a huge wave. Quite scary to see a wave that big coming near you.
We got dressed and hopped on the bus back to Pop Century for a meal at the resort restaurant (delicious Lo-Mein).
We returned to Disney-MGM studios again for a ride on, ofcourse, Tower of Terror (yes, it's that good!). We met Francisco later in the park and watched the Streetmosphere together. Gracy is the best Streetmosphere performer ever! She dropped her gum on the ground, but put it back in her mouth, because it was her last piece... :lol:
And today was also the day that we finally saw the Chicken Little and Abbey Malley characters! They're really cute!
Our day ended at the Magic Kingdom, for the last time during our stay. We hadn't done Country Bears Jamboree yet, so that's what we did! It's an audio-animatronic show with singing bears. There were a few fans in the crowd who know the songs by heart, so that cheered everything a bit up. :)
We watched Spectromagic in Frontierland, in front of the Country Bears. Like I probably already said before. The parade is very long, with tons of characters. We prefer Fantillusion. A lot more interaction and an actual story!
Wishes blasted off half an hour later. We watched it on Town Square, it was quite weird that they let on all the lights on the square and the ones of the boutiques surrounding it. Wasn't easy to film the fireworks decently like that...
Keith and Francisco came to pick us up at Pop Century for a fun evening at their place.
I have just realised that you departed wdw on my birthday!
September 25, 2005
Our last day was quite simple. We re-did some attractions we like dat MK and Disney-MGM (but actually forgot to re-do Splash Mountain :roll: :cry: ) and ended our night at Fantasmic.
As said before, this is one of the best Disney shows we've ever seen. Most fans probably already know what it's about, so I won't go into details about the story. But here are some highlights that are worth traveling to Orlando (warning: spoilers).
- The Amphitheatre is really huge, Disney claims there are no "bad" seats, but we had the impression that the most choosen seats where the ones in the middle.
- If you arrive early, like we did on both occasions, the wait is really long. CM's are trying to sell Fantasmic merchandise, and the most annoying Disney music (Disney Channel style) is playing loudly on the background. And since you're in the States, fans throw in a wave or 40.
- When the show finally started, the crowds really went crazy, espcially when Mickey suddenly appeared on stage, something that's not common at DLRP. This happened again by the end of the show when an animated Tinkerbell appeared on the waterscreen.
- The best part of the show starts when Mickey defeats Maleficent. That's when the build up for the "Grand Finale" starts with first Steamboat Willie and tons of characters (including for some kind of reason Villain Brer Bear). The emotional building up goes then in high speed and tops off with Sorcerer Mickey appearing on top of the mountain. The crowds started cheering like their favourite football team won.
- The fireworks used in this show are quite small, comparable to our Wishes.
- After the show, the whole Amphitheatre is a garbage belt. It's discusting to see how people leave all their garbage right on their seats. When most people have left, a huge amount of CM's come with large garbage bags to clean everything up. We took our own garbage and put it in one of the bags, which actually amazed the CM who was cleaning up nachos, popcorn and empty bottles of Coke.
- Conclusion: this show HAS to come to DLRP. An improved version will work very well. Like Moteurs... Action, it can be performed all year long, if they build a sheltered seating area. The use of fireworks can't be a problem either, since big fireworks aren't needed. It's the show element and music that's the most important.
We took off again to our room and found the plush toys we bought the day before decorated in the curtain. What a nice suprise by the cleaning crew.
We've spent most of the night trying to pack our bags (bought to many souvenires) and had actually ask a bag to Francisco and Keith so we could bring everything back home.
The next day, Disney's Magical Express picked is up early in the morning (it arrived 15 minutes too late...) and dropped is off at MCO. We took our TED flight to Washington where we had to wait over 8 hours for connection to Brussels. Somewhat boring, but thanks to our night flight, everything went really fast after a long sleep. We arrived at Brussels at 07.35 am with lots of stories to tell to our families and this message board.
DLRP versus WDW
Most WDW fans complain about DLRP being too small, too European and less magical. Is that true?? Well for us it wasn't at all! You know what they say: There's no place like home ;-)
Here are some pro's and contra's from WDW compared to DLRP.
(+) :D
* Certain attractions are really great: Tower of Terror, Philharmagic, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, Test Track, ...
* Animal Kingdom: beautiful park, feels like our Adventureland.
* Food: far much better compared to DLRP, probably related to the food cultured at the United States.
(-) :(
* The Magic Kingdom: DLP is so much more beautiful, from Main Street USA, the castle, and the overall look of the lands.
* World Showcase looks nice from the outside, but most of the actual attractions are too old to impress first-timers. Although movies like O-Canada and Impressions de France are nice, the style of the movie (especially the clothing of the people on the films) look too '70's.
* Bad attractions: Pirates of the Caribbean (that was before the rehab), BTM, Space Mountain, ... Most of them have aged without being taken care off.
* The Tiki-Tiki Room under new Managment: everyone knows how annoying Iago is...
* Christmas decorations at Disney-MGM Studios were being put up in September, causing lots of bad photos.
(Neutral) :|
* Cast Members at the US parks are said to be a lot more friendly then the Paris CM's. That's not really true. Most CM's are as equal friendly as the CM's at DLRP, maybe the elder CM's are an exception (but I don't know many unfriendly grandmothers :) ) Most younger CM's (maybe temp's?) don't seem to care about their job, they just stand there and do what they have to do. (probably same as in Paris).
I can't think of other stuff for now, feel free to post comments & questions. Thanks for reading our Trip Report, which has finally been finished after almost a year. :lol: