It was a very sad day today - I took down my WDW ticker. At the moment, we have no new trips planned, but it wouldn't surprise me if that changed sometime next year. This last trip was a spur of the moment booking, and I hope to do it again soon.
Anyway, I will try and do a proper trip report this time. I apologize to everyone in advance - no publishing house is ever going to offer me a contract based on my writing skills! I will try not to bore everyone to death, but hopefully I will post some food pictures to keep you interested.
Day One
We were up very early to catch our flight to Toronto, and managed to get through the first round of security without having to go through a complete body scan or pat down. 
Then it was on to U.S. customs, and a half hour wait to get through there. Onward to the second round of security, and hooray, no body scans this time either. This took another half hour to complete, and then we went and grabbed a quick breakfast. Our flight to Orlando was late coming in from Halifax, so we sat around for an hour and a half before we boarded. We landed in Orlando at about 1:30 p.m., hiked down to the Magical Express, and walked onto a bus in about 30 seconds. POR was the first stop, so we were on site by just after 2:30 p.m.
October 9th was one of the days that they were upgrading the reservation systems, and we knew there could be problems, but were hoping that the system would be up and running by the time we got there. Nope! We couldn't check into our rooms or get our tickets, but the cast members had been told that the system would be up in the next 30 minutes. Peter and I decided we would grab some lunch at the food court, and then see if we could finish the check-in process. Peter was starving, and didn't care where he ate. I hate the POR food court, and ending up picking at a burger and cold fries while he scarfed his lunch down. Then back to the desk, to be told that the system was still down, and unlikely to come up for a while. They issued us a comp pass for the day, we dumped our bags with bell services, and headed off to Animal Kingdom. When we arrived, the parade was in full swing, so we ended up watching about 3/4 of it before we could head off to the safari. We didn't expect to see many animals, since it was hot and late in the afternoon, but still enjoyed it anyway. Our guide was a very enthusiastic driver, and since we were in the back row, we felt as if we were touring Monument Valley in Utah again (there was lots of bouncing around!). Some people were complaining, but I thought it was great! After that, we headed over to Expedition Everest, one of Peter's favourite rides. I don't do well on coasters, so I sat and people watched while he did the ride twice. Then on to Finding Nemo, which we had never seen. I know lots of people love this show, but I can't say I'm one of them. The puppets and scenery are very well done, but I found the songs loud and repetitious. We were glad we did it though, just because it was new to us. By now it was almost closing time, so we headed out to the hotel. Luckily, by the time we arrived, the system was up and running, and we could get our room keys. It was a bit of an adventure finding the room in the dark, but we ended up in Magnolia House overlooking a garden area - perfect! We fell into bed pretty early, so we would be ready for Hollywood Studios tomorrow.
Day Two
Today we headed out for Hollywood Studios. We had picked up fruit cups in the food court the night before for breakfast, so we were on our way quickly. We arrived around 8:20, got in a line that was only a few people deep, and were through the gates at 8:45. I headed to Toy Story Mania to get fastpasses for both of us while Peter headed to Tower of Terror. TSM was down this morning for opening, so it was good that we didn't plan to ride it right away anyway. By the time I got over to TT, Peter had already ridden it once, and was on his second ride. When he came off, it still wasn't busy, so I told him to go again if he wanted to. TS was still down, so there was no hurry to go somewhere else. I got myself a frozen lemonade, and chatted with a few other weak-stomached people. Peter managed 4 rides in total before 9:45, so he was a very happy camper. TS had just come up, so we headed off to ride that. Once we were done, we pulled fastpasses again, even though we knew we would be leaving before the window opened for us. We don't do RNR - Peter doesn't like that one, so we don't need fastpasses for anything else. It's fun to "gift" people with the TS fastpasses as we are headed out, since they wouldn't get to ride it otherwise. Then on to the Great Movie Ride - we got the gangster storyline this time, which was fun. We always seem to get the cowboy one for some reason. It was nice to see the alien moving in the ceiling again - that wasn't working the last time we were there. This is one of my favourite rides, and it was pretty much a walk-on when we went in. When we came out, the line was almost to the sorcerer's hat!
By now we were hungry, so we headed over to Starring Rolls. Thank you everyone for telling us about this - it was great. I had a croissant and red velvet cupcake, and Peter had some sort of cinnamon roll and a ham and cheese sandwich. Sorry about the sandwich picture - Peter had eaten half of it before I could get my camera out! 
Then it was on to One Man's Dream, which we had never seen before. I loved it, and would gladly do it again any time. We saw the Indiana Jones Stunt show - it hadn't changed much in 14 years, but we still enjoyed it. We did Star Tours twice, and got to see 2 more variations of the storyline we hadn't seen. Jessi - we looked for you, but didn't see you. 
We finally saw the Beauty and the Beast show also - in all our trips, we had never found the time. I enjoyed it, but I think Peter napped through half of it at least.
It was hot, it was humid, so we decided we were tired and headed back to POR for a swim and a rest.
After that, we headed over to the Magic Kingdom at about 5:30. We had dinner at Columbia Harbour House, another first for us. The downstairs area was jammed, but the upstairs was peaceful and almost empty. Peter had the shrimp, and I had the tuna sandwich. Sorry, no pictures of these - we were both so hungry we'd eaten everything before I remembered to haul the camera out! We then headed to Pirates of the Caribbean, which was a walk-on. Then over to Jungle Cruise, which was fun to do in the dark. We had a hilarious skipper, and a group of tourists who really took the warnings to take cover, etc. to heart. At one point they were on the floor of the boat, avoiding the perils they thought were coming their way. I think they were a little embarrassed when they figured out it was a joke, but they were soon laughing and having a great time along with everyone else. We wandered over to the Haunted Mansion and rode that twice before heading out - we would be back on Sunday, so didn't feel the need to do everything tonight. The electrical parade was going down Main Street as we headed out, so we got to see that too. By the time we got back to the hotel, filled our mugs and picked up fruit cups for the next day, it was about 10 p.m. That was it for the night for us! Tomorrow, Epcot.
Diana
Time marches on. Eventually you realize it's doing it across your face.
| Preview | Attachment | Size |
|---|---|---|
| red_velvet_cupcake.jpg | 833.5 KB | |
| starring_rolls.jpg | 898.14 KB |
need our rest!
