Trip Report - Walt Disney World - 07/18/2011

So today is the second day of our trip. Today we have Animal Kingdom, All Star Movies and Downtown Disney planned. We also have dinner plans at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort.

Today we got up early so that we can make it to Animal Kingdom as soon as it opened. I'm not looking forward to visiting Animal Kingdom this day. On most days, Animal Kingdom can be pretty warm and stuffy because of all the foliage and the people. Today is another hot day, so the park is going to be much, much warmer. We get to the park shortly after opening, around 9:15am. We make a bee-line to the Kilimanjaro Safari. The wait time is 15 minutes. So we get on right away. I love the Safari. Today we get to see a lot of animals out and about. One of the better tours I have been on.

After the safari, we headed to Expedition Everest. I figure it might be best to ride this before we have breakfast. There is a posted time of 25 minutes, but it seemed more like 20. I wasn't sure how my nephew would handle roller coasters. I would soon find out that he LOVES them. We had a blast. We decide to ride Everest a second time. Its always better the second time!

Now that we are fully awake, we are hungry. So we head to Pizzafari in Discovery Island. We get a Breakfast Pizza, Egg & Sausage, apple juice and a large coke. We use our dining plan to pay for this. I'm loving the dining plan more and more every day. Now that we ate, we tour Animal Kingdom some more.

After breakfast, I ask my nephew what show would he like to see: Festival of the Lion King or Finding Nemo. Nemo wins. So we have time before the next show. We go to DinoLand USA and see what we can ride. I see that Primeval Whirl is still closed down from the terrible accident that took place. Hopefully Disney will make this ride safer for the workers and riders. Then I see that Triceratop Spin has a 15 minute wait. So we get on. Yes I know its a Dino version of Dumbo, but its still a cute ride. My nephew enjoys the attraction. And that's what counts.

After Triceratop, we head towards Finding Nemo. Its almost full, but we find seats towards the front, left side of stage. It's a good view. Not too close that we can't see everything. While not my favorite show, my nephew enjoys the show. He has seen the Finding Nemo movie many times but has not seen The Lion King movie. What is wrong with this kid? LOL! Well, Uncle Johnny will change that when The Lion King 3D hits the movie screens later this year.

After Finding Nemo, I decide we have one more attraction to see before we leave. That will be Its Tough to be a Bug, the 3D film. One of the things I love about this show is that its an in-door attraction with AC. Yes, its another HOT day at Disney World. We go in and get our 3D glasses and take our seats. This is a funny, but sometimes scary show for young kids.So I told my nephew not to get scared by anything that happens while we watch the film. And for the most part he is fine. Until the end of the film. You know what happens at the end of the film. My nephew got a 'sting' from one of the insects from the film. He jumped off his seat so fast, it made me laugh!

I think we have seen enough of Animal Kingdom, so its time to move on. I want to take my nephew to the All Star Movies resort so that he can see the Toy Story section of the resort. We jump onto a bus and make our way to All Stars.

After a very quick ride, we are at All Stars Movie resort. We go thru the main lobby and head out to the Toy Story section. Why? Because my nephew LOVES anything that has to do with Toy Story. So I show him all the over-sized statues of the various Toy Story characters. There's a jumbo Buzz Lightyear, a Woody statue, Little Bo Peep, RC and Rex. We take various pics and look around the resort. I really like the All Stars resort. I've stayed at the Movies and Music sections. I really love the Three Caballeros pool at the Music section.  After our tour, its time for lunch at Downtown Disney.

As we ride over to Downtown Disney, I am loving the intense cold on the bus. Its such a relief from the heat of the day. However, I will regret the cold buses in a couple of days. More on this later.

We get to the Market Place section of Downtown Disney. So we need to get some lunch. And a huge drink. Near Cap'n Jack's Oyster Bar, there is a snack stand that had hot dogs. So we get a lunch meal of hot dogs, bag of chips and drinks. We find some tables and chairs along Village Lake and enjoy our lunch. Has anyone else had these bagged chips that Disney is now selling? They are AMAZING! They have regular and BBQ flavor chips that I know of. They are so tasty and addictive!!!

After lunch, we head to the Mega Lego Store to see what statues that have that are built with Legos. We go inside and guess what we see? We see statues of Buzz Lightyear

While at Downtown Disney, I was updating my social media status. I was on Gowalla, Twitter and Facebook. While updating my Facebook profile, I saw that my cousin's wife sent me a message saying that she was at Downtown Disney. My cousin and his family live near Orlando. I immediately replied and hoped that I had not missed her. It would be nice to see her since I didn't have any spare time on this trip to visit my cousin and his family. I then got a response that she had already left because was too hot to do any shopping. Now that's a first!! Too hot to do any shopping!!! LOL! I thought women loved shopping under ANY situation. I guess there are limits. Now it was time to head back to Pop Century and swim for a bit before dinner at Chef Mickey's.

Back at Pop Century, we went swimming for about two hours. While swimming, I realize that I forgot to use sun tan lotion. I will pay for this too in a couple of days. All I can say is OUCH!!!

After our swim, we rest a bit in our hotel room. We watch some more Phineas & Ferb. We watched the ending of Wall-E. Then we got ready and headed to the Contemporary Resort. I'm was looking forward to dinner at Chef Mickey. Plus its been awhile since I've visited this resort.

As you know, there are no buses that go from resort to resort. So we took a bus to the Magic Kingdom. From there, we took the pathway that leads to the Contemporary Resort. As you walk along this path, you get to see the Space Mountain building.

So we make our way to the 4th level of the Contemporary Resort. There you will find the Outer Rim food lounge, the quick service Contempo Cafe eatery and Che Mickey's Buffet. We check in and we have our picture taken with a Chef Mickey statue. About 15 minutes later, we are seated for dinner.

Chef Mickey's is a great place to eat. Plus you get meet Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto and Mickey Mouse. We are told by our waiter that everyone will come to over table for pics and autographs shortly. So we to the buffet and get some food. I love the buffets at Disney, the food is always good and there is something for everyone to enjoy.

As we eat, music starts playing and the characters start dancing around. All the customers start twirling their napkins. It turns into a party!!! It was so much fun. We enjoy our dinner and we get lots of pictures taken with the characters. All in all, a great time at Chef Mickey's. I also buy the photo package of the picture we took when we arrived for dinner.

After dinner, we walk around the resort for bit. We see that a pirate party is taking place. We see Mr. Smee and Captain Hook lead pirate children thru the lobby. It was so cute to see.

After touring the resort, we decided to do a night-time ride on the monorail. I figure we could just ride the monorail for one loop and see the other resorts along the monorail  loop. It was nice to just relax after dinner and go on this 'mini ride'. We also got to see parts of the Electrical Water Pageant. It was so cute. After we returned back to the Contemporary, it was time to head back to Pop Century.

Well if you read all of this, you realized what a LONG day we had at Disney World. We grab late-night snacks and head to our room. We watch a little TV and we're soon fast asleep. Tomorrow is an early day for us. I want to be at the Disney Hollywood Studios by 8am, an hour before they open. Why? Because I want to ride Toy Story Mania when the park opens and I want to get Fast Passes for this ride so that we can at least ride it two times. My nephew is really looking forward to this ride. So hopefully my plan will work. Until then, Magical Dreams!

John

Disney Pic of the Day...

I thought I would post some of my favorite trip pics. Here's one from my recent July trip. Enjoy!!!

Happy Birthday Madonna!!!

Today's is Madonna's 53rd birthday. So to celebrate, let's take a look at Madonna's extensive music history. A history spanning over 25 years. Madonna is currently working on a new album, but for now let's take a walk down memory lane. The video I choose is The Queen of Pop Megamix mixed & edited by Robin Skouteris. Enjoy!

Madonna - The Queen Of Pop MEGAMIX Video



John

Madonna Music Monday - 08/15/2011

Over the years, Madonna has done very few duets. And her live duets are far fewer. One of the earliest duets Madonna did was in 1985 at the Live Aid benefit concert. At the time, Madonna's Like A Virgin album was playing everywhere. Now an important fact to know is that Madonna's album was co-produced by Nile Rodgers, iconic founder & member of the classic music group CHIC. Another soon to be released album that was produced by Nile Rodgers was the Thompson Twins' Here's to Future Days. Madonna and the Thompson Twins were asked to perform at Live Aid. Madonna performed a 3 song set that included Holiday, Get Into The Groove and Love Makes The World Go Round. Later in the day, the Thompson Twins performed a two set. On their set, they were joined on stage by Madonna and Nile Rodgers. The song they choose to perform is a huge classic. So here is the Thompson Twins singing the Beatles' song Revolution, with an assist by Madonna, Nile Rodgers and guitarist Steve Stevens. Enjoy!



John

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

Wishes Fireworks - Magic Kingdom - 07/20/2011

I'm Back and I Survived Walt Disney World...

Hello one and all! Well I'm back from another great Disney vacation. It has taken awhile to post a blog because I'm still recovering from a cold I got while at Disney World. In 98 degree heat, with no rain in sight and high humidity I somehow got a sore throat, cough and cold. But now that it seems to be going away, I can get back to blogging.

As you know, I spent 6 days at Uncle Walt's place in Orlando. The week called for weather in the high 90's. Plus high humidity. At least I would get some swimming done at the resort.

The week at Disney World actually went well. Oh...except for the excessive heat....the sun-burn I got on the second day of the trip...the cough, cold thing...and the GAZILLION BRAZILIANS that were at the parks. I guess July is winter time for Brazil. And they must have gotten great vacation discounts to visit Disney World. On any given day, packs of Brazilians would be at the parks. Now when I say packs, I mean PACKS!!! There would be about 10 to 12 groups of Brazilians roaming the parks. And each pack had at least 300 members to them. So there would be about 3500 to 5000 Brazilians at the parks each day. And how can you tell there were Brazilians at the parks? Many of the park announcements were broadcasted in Portuguese!!!

While there were crowds everywhere, we didn't 'feel' the crowds. We were able to see all the attractions we wanted to see. In fact, there were a few that we got to ride many times (Star Tours 6 times, PhilharMagic 5 times).

All in all I say my 8 year old nephew had a great time on his 1st trip to Disney World. He was on the go, go, go like most 8 year olds are. Plus he's a big ham and loves to joke around. In the coming weeks I plan on doing reports for each of the six days of our trip. I've posted some pics and videos already, but there are a lot more to come. Well time to get back to my 'real life' activities, as much as I hate it!

John