FL pics, summary
May. 31st, 2006 10:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancerjodiBrian was able to put our trip pics up: http://tk7602.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=145 . We don't have any pics of us *in* the parade, since once in the park 'behind the scenes', we weren't allowed to take pictures. We're keeping our eyes open to see if anyone else that saw the parade has pics of us (we'll be easy to spot, because we were the only 501st Tuskens).
(please forgive my typos)
We arrived on Thursday late afternoon, did the Magical Express (Disney gets your luggage from baggage claim, takes you to the hotel and drops luggage in your room). This was so cool - staying in a resort hotel was totally worth it. After some exploring our hotel (Port Orleans French Quarter) and grabbing food we met up with our friends and headed to Downtown Disney for dinner, shops and browsing Pleasure Island (it was only open for another hour, and we didn't want to pay the $ to get in for only an hour).
On Friday we hit Animal Kingdom in the morning and did the Safari, the new Everest rollercoaster (so good, and per our friend Lori the Disney expert, is their biggest one yet). I loved the walk through jungles with the animals - lounging meercats and huge bats, oh my! There wasn't time to hit everything (I wanted to see The Lion King show, next time) and we headed to MGM. Of course we did Star Tours, I got to see the AT-AT, we shopped in Tatooine Traders. We did a lot of the pseudo-rides (Muppets, Movies, Narnia, Backlot Tour). There wasn't time to do the stunt show (new) or the Indiana Jones Stunt show. The Rockin' Roller Coaster (Aerosmith theme) was so much fun and probably my favorite ride, but alas, too short. We saw the closing water show/fireworks at the end of the night which was neat.
Saturday was the parade at MGM. We had to be at the park at 9:00ish and after bomb sniffing dogs oked our luggage (!) we were let into an employee part of the park. We changed inside of a huge garage and had access to the employee bathrooms (I didn't go, but Brian did and got to see the costume room through a walk up check out window and the bathroom which had a sign noting its closed every hour for 10 minutes for cleaning for sweeping up fur, beads, sequins, etc). The parade was at around 11:00 and only lasted about 10 minutes but it was so much fun! So many excited park patrons. Here's hoping we get pics later. Post changing and lunch with the FL Garrison outside of the park we got back to the hotel at around 2-3, freshened up and headed to the Magic Kingdom. We did splash mountain, thunder mountain, haunted mansion, small world, and other things I'm forgetting. Brian and I forgoed Space Mountain so that we'd have time to explore a bit before the parade and fireworks. It was neat to see the traditional stuff and see how they emphasize education in places (its not all mindless entertainment).
Sunday was Epcot, so cool! We went on the new Soar ride, like you are hangliding in CA complete with pine and orange smells as you fly over groves of trees. We did the ride inside of the globe, the figment imagination thing, Ellen Degeneris dinosaur thing, checked out the Nemo aquarium (sharks and dolphins and manatees and cuttlefish, whee) and checked out most of the countries. Again, we ran out of time. The final fireworks over the pond at Epot was really neat, titled "Reflections of the World" and having the same general feel as Its a Small World (Look at all these people all over, dealing with the same thing). We hit the pool and jacuzzi at the hotel on Sunday night.
Monday was our trip home. Brian and I had time to walk and explore the resort a bit more, and found we'd prefer the other Port Orleans Hotel (Riverside) the next time we stay (less cheezy and more plantationy, really good breakfast at their restaurant). We sat along the "river" to kill time before Disney printed our boarding passes, took away our luggage again, and took us to the airport. The flight was uneventful.
We definitely had a great time and would love to go again (perhaps in a cooler, less crowded time, like November or early December). The effecient entertainment machine that is Disney is quite impressive, and it was nice not having to worry about anything, having people to look out for you everywhere. It was totally what we needed, and I think a good way to prepare ourselves for what we'd have to deal with when we got home.
(please forgive my typos)
We arrived on Thursday late afternoon, did the Magical Express (Disney gets your luggage from baggage claim, takes you to the hotel and drops luggage in your room). This was so cool - staying in a resort hotel was totally worth it. After some exploring our hotel (Port Orleans French Quarter) and grabbing food we met up with our friends and headed to Downtown Disney for dinner, shops and browsing Pleasure Island (it was only open for another hour, and we didn't want to pay the $ to get in for only an hour).
On Friday we hit Animal Kingdom in the morning and did the Safari, the new Everest rollercoaster (so good, and per our friend Lori the Disney expert, is their biggest one yet). I loved the walk through jungles with the animals - lounging meercats and huge bats, oh my! There wasn't time to hit everything (I wanted to see The Lion King show, next time) and we headed to MGM. Of course we did Star Tours, I got to see the AT-AT, we shopped in Tatooine Traders. We did a lot of the pseudo-rides (Muppets, Movies, Narnia, Backlot Tour). There wasn't time to do the stunt show (new) or the Indiana Jones Stunt show. The Rockin' Roller Coaster (Aerosmith theme) was so much fun and probably my favorite ride, but alas, too short. We saw the closing water show/fireworks at the end of the night which was neat.
Saturday was the parade at MGM. We had to be at the park at 9:00ish and after bomb sniffing dogs oked our luggage (!) we were let into an employee part of the park. We changed inside of a huge garage and had access to the employee bathrooms (I didn't go, but Brian did and got to see the costume room through a walk up check out window and the bathroom which had a sign noting its closed every hour for 10 minutes for cleaning for sweeping up fur, beads, sequins, etc). The parade was at around 11:00 and only lasted about 10 minutes but it was so much fun! So many excited park patrons. Here's hoping we get pics later. Post changing and lunch with the FL Garrison outside of the park we got back to the hotel at around 2-3, freshened up and headed to the Magic Kingdom. We did splash mountain, thunder mountain, haunted mansion, small world, and other things I'm forgetting. Brian and I forgoed Space Mountain so that we'd have time to explore a bit before the parade and fireworks. It was neat to see the traditional stuff and see how they emphasize education in places (its not all mindless entertainment).
Sunday was Epcot, so cool! We went on the new Soar ride, like you are hangliding in CA complete with pine and orange smells as you fly over groves of trees. We did the ride inside of the globe, the figment imagination thing, Ellen Degeneris dinosaur thing, checked out the Nemo aquarium (sharks and dolphins and manatees and cuttlefish, whee) and checked out most of the countries. Again, we ran out of time. The final fireworks over the pond at Epot was really neat, titled "Reflections of the World" and having the same general feel as Its a Small World (Look at all these people all over, dealing with the same thing). We hit the pool and jacuzzi at the hotel on Sunday night.
Monday was our trip home. Brian and I had time to walk and explore the resort a bit more, and found we'd prefer the other Port Orleans Hotel (Riverside) the next time we stay (less cheezy and more plantationy, really good breakfast at their restaurant). We sat along the "river" to kill time before Disney printed our boarding passes, took away our luggage again, and took us to the airport. The flight was uneventful.
We definitely had a great time and would love to go again (perhaps in a cooler, less crowded time, like November or early December). The effecient entertainment machine that is Disney is quite impressive, and it was nice not having to worry about anything, having people to look out for you everywhere. It was totally what we needed, and I think a good way to prepare ourselves for what we'd have to deal with when we got home.
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Date: 2006-05-31 07:09 pm (UTC)FL
Date: 2006-05-31 07:54 pm (UTC)Re: FL
Date: 2006-05-31 07:57 pm (UTC)our plan is to drive down in june or july. if that works out well, we'll do it again in october - it's hard for leila to leave scamp with others (and hard for scamp to adjust), so it's better if we can just drive and take him along.