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[Anthony]

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!  

[Kristof]

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!

[Kristof]

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... ;-)

[Kristof]

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!  

[Kristof]

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

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.  

[Anthony]

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?  

Love the photos too - I'll have to take a proper look through them all this week whilst I'm off college.  

[Kristof]

Yes Baloo, Fantasmic is an amazing show.  It builds up your emotions to the big climax.

[Kristof]

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

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.

[Patrick]

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: .

[Aladdin]

sounds like a wonderful trip  i wish i was there

[flor]

lol
Next time, you should join us

[Aladdin]

sounds like a plan

[Kristof]

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:

[Kristof]

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.

[Kristof]

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