Trip Report - Walt Disney World - 07/17/2011

So today is the day! Its an early day. We got up early and headed to Chicago's Midway airport. We have a 8am flight out of Chicago, due into Orlando around 11:40am. Our luggage is tagged for Magical Express transferring. So we won't see our luggage until our room is ready at our resort, Pop Century.

As we take off, the pilot tells us that we could get into Orlando a bit early. Maybe even 30 minutes early. The flight is pretty uneventful. Even for a Southwest flight. And as predicted by the pilot, we do get to Orlando early. As we get off the plane, we head down to the Magical Express counter. As we approach the counter, we are asked what resort we are headed to. I tell the Cast Member we are staying at Pop Century. The CM directs us to an empty line. As we approach the beginning of the line, another Cast Member asks if we are going to Pop Century, to which I say yes. So the CM tells us to board the bus that is ready to leave. Wow! That's what I call 'no-wait' service! Walt Disney World...Here We Come!!!

So after a short bus ride, we arrive at Pop Century. As we enter the lobby, we see it is PACKED with people trying to check in. As soon as we enter the lobby, I see the sign for guests who have already checked in on-line. A CM is positioned at the line exit with a laptop stand. As we approach the CM, she asks for my name. I tell her and she begins to look-up our reservation. She finds it and we go over the details. She tells me my room is located on the ground level of the 70's section. I did put in a request for a room in the 80's section. I take a quick look at the resort map to see what section is closer to the main hall. It turns out, the 70's section is located next to the main hall. I tell the CM that this is fine. She asks if we used the Magical Express service to transport our luggage, to which I say yes. The CM tells me that when our room is ready, we will get a text message letting us know when it is ready. Since our room is not ready, what do we do? Head to the Magic Kingdom!!

This is my favorite part. This is when I get to see the facial expression of a person who sees the Magic Kingdom for the 1st time. The look of complete happiness is just amazing. To say my 8 year old nephew is ECSTATIC to be at Disney world is an under-statement! He is so happy, it is beyond hilarious. So thus begins our week long adventure.

As we walk down Main Street, I see its 1pm. Wow. I didn't think we would be at the parks this early. Plus, the Magic Kingdom is open until 2am this day. But it being a travel day, I'm sure we won't stay that late at the park. So now to make an important decision: what attraction do we ride 1st? As we enter the park hub, we decide to go towards Tomorrowland. My nephew is really excited about anything that deals with the Toy Story films. So we go see how the line is for Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. Well its over a 40 minute wait. We decide to skip it for now. Instead we head over to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority People Mover, which has a 5 minute wait listed. This officially becomes my nephews 1st ride at Walt Disney world. Below is video of our ride-thru.



After the ride, we decide to check the status of Space Ranger Spin. The wait is 20 minutes now, so we jump in line. We have a great time and of course I get the high score. My nephew wants to ride again, but I tell him we have plenty of time to ride again. As we exit, we see that Buzz Lightyear is out taking pics and singing autographs. Since my nephew is wearing his Buzz Lightyear t-shirt, we have to get a picture taken. This makes for a great photo op.

After the picture we head to the Carousel of Progress. Why? Because its a classic attraction, because it gives us a chance to sit down and relax, and more importantly it gives us a place to cool down. Why do we need to cool down so soon after arriving to the Magic Kingdom? Because it is HOT!!! How hot do you ask? I say 98 degrees hot with 95 percent humidity! HOT. HOT. HOT!!! This will become one theme of the week. The week has rain predicted for the week. Let's see how that pans out...

After Carousel of Progress, we decide its time to eat something. So we go to The Lunching Pad and get a quick lunch meal. I get the Conney Island Dog, which is a hot dog topped with chili, while my nephew gets a plain hot dog. I use our dining plan to get our meals. We are on the basic dining plan which allows for one snack, one counter service meal and one table service meal per day per person. Can I say I LOVE this plan. Plus I love having my meals pre-paid. All I have to do is get my food, show them my resort key card, swipe it and walk away. Lunch is tasty and I start to feel better after drinking my soda. Because it is HOT!!!

While we were eating, I got a text message saying that our room was ready. I thought this would be a good time to head back to the resort for a break. Plus I wanted to see if our luggage had arrived at the room. So back to Pop Century we go. It took me some time to locate our room because the text message did not state what building our room was located in. So after walking around the entire 70's section, I found our room. As we go in, I don't see our luggage. I call the front desk to get an estimate arrival time for our luggage. The standard is 2 to 4 hours after the room has been ASSIGNED. So we freshen up a bit because we are sweating way too much for a human being. We walk over to the main hall to check out the game arcade, the food court and the gift shop. We then head back to the room. And guess what? Our luggage has shown up! So we quickly unpack, get our swimming trunks on and we head to the Hippy Dippy Pool for a much needed swim. We swim for about two hours. This feels SO GOOD. After our swim, we decide to head back to the Magic Kingdom.

Back at the Magic Kingdom, we go see PhilharMagic, the 3D animated film starring Donald Duck. We also ride the classic Its A Small World attraction. And we ride Space Ranger Spin again. My nephew is really loving this attraction. As we walk around, I'm not feeling the 'crowds', although there are a lot people at the park. I also notice that there are HUGE groups of Brazilian students at the parks. And when I say HUGE GROUPS of Brazilians, I mean it. In fact, because there are so many Brazilians, I have nick-named them the 'Gazillion Brazilians'.

And how do I know that there is a huge amount of Brazilians at the park? When we 1st arrived at the Magic Kingdom, as we were walking down Main Street, an announcement was made that due to the crowds there was going to be an additional showing of A Dream Come True Parade that day. The announcement was made in English, Spanish and Portuguese. That's when I knew that the parks would be crowded this week. So now I have to adjust my plans to reflect the heat and the possible large crowds. Oh well.

After riding Space Ranger Spin, we decide to head back to the resort and call it quits. We've been up since 5am, traveled, spent the day swimming and walking in the hot sun. So sleep is much needed. We get back to Pop Century, get a few snacks from the food court and head to our room. The room is quite chilly since I put the AC on high. I lower the setting on the AC and turn on the TV to watch some Disney Channel. My nephew does not have cable at home, so watching the Disney Channel is making him very happy. After some TV with our snacks, we crash and fall asleep. Tomorrow is an early and busy day. We plan on touring the Animal Kingdom, go shopping at Downtown Disney and have dinner at Chef Mickey's. Let's see how Day Two goes.

John